


Tiny Tim

by awhitehead17



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Red Robin (Comics), Superboy (Comics)
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Angst, Bonding, Child body Adult mind, Disney World, Fluff, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, Kidnapping, Kon's trying, M/M, Nightmares, Ninjas - Freeform, Protective Siblings, Tim's annoyed, Tiny Tim - Freeform, de-aged Tim, domestic feels, haha changed my mind, hints towards neglection, hints towards pedophilia, there's mind regression as well
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-16
Updated: 2019-03-19
Packaged: 2019-04-01 06:20:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 23
Words: 94,753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13992285
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/awhitehead17/pseuds/awhitehead17
Summary: When Tim gets de-aged into a four year old, it's up to Kon and the Bats to keep him safe, only it's not as easy as it should be.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to my attempt at a de-aged story. I love de-aged fics and just wanted to have a go at writing one myself. 
> 
> Please enjoy :D

An hour ago had Tim called him with a distress signal, he had thought his boyfriend was in terrible danger and had gotten himself in a situation he couldn’t get out of alone. He flew to Gotham from Kanas to where Tim was patrolling (alone) preparing for a major fight, however when he had gotten there he was simply met with a lump of Red Robin’s costume. He looked around for Tim but couldn’t find him so on further inspection of the abandoned suit Conner could see that something was moving inside of it.

He had gone over and carefully lifted the suit to find a toddler tangled up inside, being confused as hell Kon helped the toddler out of the clothes and wrapped him up in Red Robin’s cape.

“Hey buddy,” Kon said softly as he crouched down to the child’s height, “Can you tell me what you’re doing out here all alone.” Kon has a pretty good idea who the toddler was but unfortunately he has no idea what state of mind said toddler was in.

The toddler looks at him with wide blue eyes that Conner could recognise anywhere. Kon held his breath, unsure on what was about to happen.

“Kon it’s me, you dumbass.” The toddler said, his voice came out high pitched and the insult really didn’t sound right coming from a child’s mouth.

Conner gaped at the child as the child looked back at him with what he guesses is a bored expression. “Tim?”

“Yes, you idiot.”

“What the hell happened?” He questioned his now tiny boyfriend. Tim’s eyes are large and bright, a full mop of short black hair sits on top of his head, he’s something close to a button nose (which Kon really wanted to bop) and he has small lips to the point where you couldn’t even see them.

Those small lips turn into pout as Tim looks up at him. Tim’s eyes narrow and Kon guesses that it’s his attempts at a glare, it doesn’t work and all it does is makes Kon want to squeeze Tim’s cheeks together. He doesn’t because he knows Tim wouldn’t appreciate it.

“It was a magician. He got away. He zapped me and before I blacked out I pressed the signal, I woke up tangled in my suit then you came along.” Tim explained, his tiny hands playing with the edge of the cape.

“You know you’re speaking really well for a toddler.” Kon commented.

Tim carried on doing that cute pout, “That’s all you care about! I’ve been turned into a child!”

Kon couldn’t help but laugh. “Yeah, I’ve gathered that Tim. Look let’s get you to your apartment then we’ll talk there…”

So Kon brought him back to the apartment and dressed him in one of Tim’s smallest shirts which just ended up as a dress on the toddler.

An hour has passed and Kon was trying to convince Tim to let him take him to the Bats, its easy to say that toddler Tim was just as stubborn as adult Tim.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to take you to Batman?”

“Yes, I’m sure.”

“Tim, I have no experience with kids. I have no idea what I’m doing.”

“You have a 12-year-old little brother.”

“Exactly! 12! 12 years old, not a 2-year-old!”

“I’m 4.”

“Are you sure? You’re really small for a 4-year-old.”

Kon watches as Tim crosses his tiny arms across his tiny chest and as his small frame straightens up as if that’s going to make a difference on his height. Kon has no idea what to think right now. Thankfully Tim’s mind didn’t get de-aged like his body, it helps ease Kon a bit because at least he isn’t dealing with a wailing toddler crying out for his parents.

“Why won’t you go to Batman?” Kon questions him.

Tim rolls his eyes and gives Kon what he makes out is supposed to be an exasperated look, “Because, Dick will crush me with hugs and I won’t be able to escape, Jason will use this as black mail for the rest of my life, Damian sure as hell would succeed in killing me because there is no way I’d be able to defend myself against him, Cass would just constantly pat me on the head or something, Steph would join Jason in the black mail group. God knows what Bruce would do!”

Kon couldn’t help but snicker at his boyfriend’s current predicament. He was about to try and tell Tim that it wouldn’t be so bad when Tim suddenly yawns. A small sound escapes and as his mouth opens Kon sees two rows of tiny white teeth and a tiny tongue, Tim’s reaches up and rubs tiredly at his eyes. Kon just melts at the sight, Tim was just too adorable. The toddler’s eyes start to drop and Kon can see that each blink is getting longer.

“Come on buddy let’s get you into bed.” Kon says as he picks Tim up from underneath the arms. He’s surprised when Tim doesn’t protest at being treated like a child even if his body currently says otherwise. Kon positions him in his arms so his small legs wrap around his waist and his head rests against his shoulder, in a matter of seconds Tim is asleep on his shoulder.

Taking a moment to have an eternal freak out about how cute toddler Tim was he slowly walks over to the bedroom. Reaching the bed Conner sets down the toddler in the middle of the large bed and covers him with the blanket. He then settles himself gently on the edge of the bed and watches him sleep.

Now here comes the hard part. What the hell is he going to do? Since Tim is refusing to go to the Bats that must mean he’s expecting Kon to look after him, but Kon has no idea on how to look after toddlers even if said toddler is actually a 20-year-old vigilante. He’s got no problems being around kids, he’s saved plenty of them, he’s been around them enough to know what they can be like – but actually looking after one? He’s never done that. He could always pass him off to the Titan’s… which the idea would immediately be shot down by Tim. He’d refuse to go for similar reasons he gave about avoiding the Bats.

He watches as Tim’s petite body turns around on the bed before settling down in a new position. This had happened because Tim was apparently fighting a magician, so he got magicked into a toddler. Magic… he knows a few magicians, perhaps they could reverse the spell.

A part of him doesn’t want to age Tim back up into his normal self because Tiny Tim was just too cute to let go, but he knows his boyfriend won’t be happy until he’s back to normal.

Decision made, Conner slowly gets off the bed and then proceeds to manoeuvre the bed’s pillows around Tim so he wouldn’t fall off the bed while Kon wasn’t in there.

Grabbing his phone Kon makes a call to Zatanna, believing she’ll be the best one to deal with this situation. When she answers Kon explains the situation to her, thankfully she takes it all in stride and promises to be there in a few hours. Kon thanks her and ends the call. Deciding that he needs a drink Kon heads to the kitchen, but not before checking in on Tim, he finds his de-aged boyfriend in the same spot as last time.

He gets to the kitchen and starts up a new batch of coffee. He’s not a big drinker of the stuff but he’ll occasionally have it, unlike Tim who has about 10 cups a day. He’s tried to wean him off from it but it’s useless, Tim has his ways to ensure he gets the caffeinated beverage one way or another so Kon’s given up with it. The only times he forcefully stops Tim from drinking it is when he’s about to keel over, which happens way more than it should.

After making his cup Kon settles down at the table, keeping an ear open for Tim in the other room, he sits down and begins the wait for Zatanna.

 

 

True to her word, Zatanna appears in the apartment a few hours later. Kon stands and greets her, “Thank you for coming, I know that you must be busy.”

Zatanna gives him an amused look before stepping towards him and slapping his shoulder, “Stop being so formal. Where is he?”

Kon scratches the back of his neck in embarrassment and starts to lead the way to the bedroom. He gets to the room to find Tim still asleep in the middle of the bed but instead of being on his side he’s now laying on his back.

From next to him he hears Zatanna gasp out, “Oh my god! Look at him! He’s so small.”

Kon chuckles, “Yeah I know. He’s actually really adorable. Its taking a lot of restraint to stop myself from bopping his nose or squishing is cheeks together.”

He watches from the door as she walks over to the bed and gently sits down next to Tim’s slumbering body. She looks at Tim before looking back at him “You said that a magician did this?”

Kon nods “Yeah, well, that’s what Tim said and I trust his words.”

“Of course,” She looks back at Tim and carefully places her hands over him. “Give me a couple of minutes…”

Kon patiently waits by the door as she mutters a spell, her hands glow dimly over Tim’s body for a minute before dulling down to nothing. Several minutes go by before she’s standing up once again, Tim is still completely dead to the world as he sleeps on the giant bed. They both then move to the kitchen to talk. He looks expectantly at Zatanna who sends him a soft smile, “The spell that’s been casted on him is weak, I could easily revert it and get the normal Tim back.”

“I’m sensing there’s a but coming…”

“But… the spell will wear off on its on in about month. I suggest that you guys wait the spell out. It’s done no harm to him, nor will it, it was simply used as a distraction so whoever casted could get away without a pursuit.”

Kon frowns. He’s glad that there’s no harm done to Tim and that everything is alright but waiting the spell out for a month? Tim will not be happy, especially if he knows that there’s a way around it. Being stuck at the age of 4 for four weeks will have an impact on him, he wouldn’t be able to go out on patrol, he wouldn’t really be able to do any computer work to his usual extent, he wouldn’t be able to do any WE meetings or work…

He now gets why Zatanna has suggested that they wait the spell out.

Being the age of 4 would force Tim to take time off and relax, something he rarely does nowadays. This is the perfect opportunity to have a rest from everything.

“Tim won’t agree easily to it. He’ll fight whatever way he can until he gets his own way.” Kon tells the woman.

She nods, obviously already come to this conclusion herself, “I’m aware. What I’ll do is when he rings me, which he will, I’ll simply blackmail him by saying that if he continues to fight me on this I’ll simply tell Nightwing what has happened to Red Robin.”

Kon just nods, basically agreeing with everything she has just said. He doesn’t like the idea of having to look after Tim while he’s a toddler but if it means that Tim gets a break he’ll do it. Plus, it’ll give them two a chance to do some stuff together, something they haven’t done in a couple months, granted that they wouldn’t be able to do what they normally do because of this situation but there are definitely other things they can do together while Tim’s stuck in this body.

“Is that all?” Zatanna asks him. Kon thinks for a moment before shaking his head.

“No that’s it, thank you. Though if something doesn’t feel right, can we contact you?”

“Of course, don’t hesitate to call.”

Kon sends her a smile as she sends one back, then just like that she disappears.

A few seconds later Kon runs a hand over his face and through his hair. 4 weeks. 4 weeks of taking care a toddler, even if said toddler has an adult mind. He can do that.

Can he do it?

Tim had persisted that they leave the rest of the Bats in the dark to what has happened, but how long will Tim’s situation actually stay hidden from them? There is no way on any earths that they’ll get through the whole 4 weeks without a Bat finding out, especially if they stay in Gotham. They could always go to Kon’s apartment in Metropolis or they could always go to the farm. Kon will have to speak to Tim about it since he’s the one making things awkward for them.

Shaking his head Kon clears them thoughts and looks at the time on his phone, its nearly 4 in the morning in Gotham and Kon is feeling it catch up to him. He heads to the bedroom and looks over Tim who doesn’t look like he’s moved at all and wonders if he can lay down next to the toddler without waking him up.

Giving it a chance Kon gets himself ready for bed before gently manoeuvring Tim around on the bed so they’re both comfy. In the end Kon is lying on his back with Tim curled around his arm at his side. Thankfully his boyfriend hadn’t woke up during the movement and carried on sleeping soundly. Knowing that Tim will be okay Kon easily falls asleep.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tim wakes up and Conner deals with the first morning of Tim being a toddler.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait for this chapter, it's just a lot of things are going on and basically life got in the way so I've had to deal with that first. But here it is the next chapter to Tiny Tim, please enjoy :D

The first thing he noticed upon waking up was how bright it was beyond his eyelids, the second was that there was a light weight on his chest and the third, when he finally opened his eyes, was that he wasn’t in his own room in Kanas.

It was bright in the room because of the sun was shining through the window. Kon looks down at his chest to find a small bundle curled up on him, well that explains the weight on him and also why he wasn't in Kanas anymore. Tim was curled up into a tight ball on top of his chest, his hair was like a bird’s nest, the top he was wearing was all scrunched up around him and adorably Tim was sucking his thumb as he continued sleeping. Not resisting the urge, Kon grabs his phone from the bedside table and takes a photo of the sleeping toddler.

Kon looks at the time to find that its nearly 10 in the morning. He was surprised by this, surely Tim hadn’t slept the whole night. He would have certainly woken Kon up if he had woken up. Maybe getting changed into a toddler had really tired Tim out, Kon remembers how quickly Tim was to fall asleep last night after getting back to the apartment. But still, do toddlers sleep for that long normally? Then again this isn’t a normal situation, so who knows?

Kon’s cut from his thoughts when Tim starts to squirm around on his chest. Without thinking about it Kon holds up his hands and is prepared to steady him if he falls. Tim simply pushes himself up into a sitting position on Kon’s stomach and stretches. He blinks a few times and Kon recognises it as him not being fully awake yet. Normally Tim wouldn’t be fully awake until at least his second cup of coffee, but once again, this isn’t a normal situation and Kon’s pretty sure he can’t give a toddler strong black coffee.

Tim starts to look around and his half-closed eyes lock onto Kon’s face. Kon holds his breath unsure about how Tim is going to react. Tim blinks slowly for a minute or two before his eyes go wide, he then looks sharply down at his own body before turning back to Kon. Tim is slapping his little hands against his face and groaning, possibly even whining. Kon lets out his breath and reaches out to Tim and places his hand on Tim’s back.

“I thought it was dream! It seemed so much like a dream!” He whines looking back at Kon again with wide blue eyes. Kon works hard on not laughing as he takes in the tiny pout on Tim’s face.

Rubbing his hand along Tim’s back Kon asks, “How you feeling? Like inside I mean. Do you feel like everything is okay and that yourself besides what has happened?”

Tim shrugs. “I feel fine, just pissed at this situation.”

Kon frowns at Tim’s language choice, he knows that Tim is mentally 20 but hearing a high-pitched voice from a child using words like that just isn’t right, however he says nothing about it because he doesn’t want to rile Tim up even more. “Okay that’s good then, on the part where you say you’re fine.” He says instead.

Tim looks at him pleadingly, “Please tell me you’ve worked something out while I was asleep. And considering that we’re still in my apartment I take it that you didn’t call the Bats.”

Kon shakes his head, “No I didn’t call the Bats because that’s not what you wanted, though we’ll be having another talk about that later. I did, however, call Zatanna and got her to check you over.” Kon tells him truthfully. Tim simply does that adorable thing where he pouts and crosses his arms over his chest, clearly he’s unhappy about Zatanna knowing about his situation. “It was all I could think of and I thought that she was the best option to work out what’s going on.” Kon defends himself.

“What did she have to say?”

Before telling him, Kon sits up and moves Tim so he’s sat in between his legs, he doesn’t want to look at Tim’s face when he tells him what she said simply because it’ll be easier to give him the news when he isn’t making eye contact. “She said that it was a spell that was casted on you and that it’s a weak spell mainly used as a distraction so he could get away. She said it was harmless and nothing bad will happen to you.” He tells him as he wraps his arms around the toddler and gently hugs him.

He feels Tim’s hands settle on his arms, “What else Kon? Can she turn me back?”

Kon internally winces at the hopeful tone that Tim spoke in, “She… uh… she can turn you back…” He reluctantly tells him.

“Why didn’t she turn me back then?” Tim demands, his high-pitched voice now full of agitation, in the back of his mind Kon wonders if Tim will throw a tantrum when he learns the truth.

“She told me that we should wait it out…” Kon tells him, mentally preparing for the explosion that’s soon to happen.

“Wait it out?” Tim repeats, he’s then squirming in Kon’s arms and turning around to face him. His blue eyes are narrowed up at Kon “Why didn’t she turn me back? How long does this spell last?”

Normally when Tim glares at him Kon can be quite intimidated by it (depending on _why_ Tim’s glaring at him) but when Tim has this baby face it just doesn’t have the same effect on him. Kon sends him a sympathetic look before telling him the whole truth, there’s no point dancing around it, “Dude, you being de-aged is going to allow you to have a break, a break from work, from vigilante business, from WE business. The spell apparently lasts for 4 weeks, then it’ll wear off on its own.”

Tim’s silent for a long time. All Kon does is wait, it’s all he can do really while his tiny boyfriend processes everything.

Minutes later Tim raises his arm up and makes a grabby motion with his hand, “Give me your phone.” He demands.

Knowing exactly what he’s going to do Kon hands him over his phone, he even goes out of his way and brings up Zatanna’s number. Kon gives Tim his phone and watches with amusement as Tim tries to handle it with his small hands. Clearly struggling to handle the device in his tiny hands Tim drops it onto the bed and uses a single finger to use it. He taps on the call button and puts it on speaker.

The woman picks up on the forth ring, “Hello.”

“Zatanna, you better get your ass back over to this apartment right now and change me back to my normal self.”

“Superboy control that child of yours, he really shouldn’t be speaking like that.”

Kon couldn’t help but snicker at Zatanna’s comment, he then went as far as letting a super unattractive snort when Tim lets out a very high-pitched rebuke, “Zatanna!” Or at least Conner thought it was supposed to be a rebuke, it sounded more like a whine than anything else.

“No can do Red, I’m pretty busy right now.”

“What the hell? You came over last night.”

“I did, but I wasn’t busy then, now I am.”

“Zatanna!” Now that was definitely a whine. Kon watches Tim slam his tiny hands down on the mattress. “if you don’t bring your magical ass back to this apartment I will -”

“You’ll what Red?” They hear her sigh, “Look, the reason I’m not changing you back is because you need time off. I speak to Nightwing and Batman enough to know how much you work without an actual break, they’ve become concerned over the last two weeks Red. I’m not changing you back because I agree with them that you need to take quality time off. Enjoy it and enjoy your time with your boyfriend.”

Conner’s surprised when Tim doesn’t say anything, he’s then taking note that Tim has practically gone still as a statue. Seeing that Tim is no longer responding he speaks out, “Thanks again Zatanna.”

“No problem. Though Red, if you continue to fight me on this I will tell Batman and Nightwing what has happened.”

With that she hangs up and the screen on Conner’s phone goes black. He picks it up and moves it to the bedside table. Then he looks back at his boyfriend who still hasn’t moved position. “Tim? If it’s really that big of the problem I’m sure we can -”

“No, it's fine, really.” Tim quietly cuts him off.

Kon takes a moment to study him. Tim is sat with his legs crossed with his hands in his laps and is looking completely crestfallen. This causes Kon to frown, maybe this will be a lot more of a problem than he originally thought. He leans forward and gathers Tim in his arms before hugging him lightly to his chest, after a few seconds he feels Tim relax in his hold. He kisses the top of Tim’s head and softly tells him, “I know it seems bad but think about, you do need a break and we get to spend some time together, granted its not the way we both would prefer but we still get to do stuff.”

Tim lets out a whimper and Kon just hugs him a little tighter. “I know it's just… I just got too much to do just to take time off and unfortunately, I can see what you guys are saying. If I stay like this will you be okay looking after me?”

“Dude, I’ll be fine looking after you. I would prefer it if you tell the Bats about what’s going on, even if you stay with me at least they can offer some support if they know, but if you don’t want to then I’ll abide by that.”

“I don’t want to be a burden.”

Kon’s heart clenches hearing that. The high-pitched voice sounds so broken and sad it cuts deeply in Kon, and to add salt to the wound, it hurts even more that Tim is even thinking that he’ll be a burden at all in the first place.

Kon places another kiss to Tim’s head, “It’ll be fine.” He tries to reassure him, “Think of it as practice if you want. Me looking after you at this age will give me early practice for when we actually get kids of our own because you know, I have no idea what I’m supposed to do when looking after a child.”

It’s then that Kon realises what he just said. He didn’t mean to say that! It just slipped out!

“Uh I mean…” He stops talking altogether when he hears a giggle. He looks down to see Tim wearing a smile on his face. Kon’s decided that he prefers that face so much more than the crestfallen look Tim had earlier. Tim’s looking up at him with wide blue eyes that seem to sparkle,

“It’s okay Kon. Do you really want to raise kids with me?”

Kon feels his face go hot and he scratches the back of neck, “Uh yeah. I mean I know we’re still young at the moment but in the future, I certainly want to.”

Tim’s still got the smile on his face, “When I get back in my own body we’ll talk about it.” He promises.

Kon feels his heart skip a beat, does that mean Tim also wants to raise kids with _him?_

Tim then starts to squirm around in his arms and Kon gets the message, he places Tim back down on the mattress. It takes Tim a moment but soon enough he’s got his feet underneath him and is standing up. The t-shirt that he’s been wearing falls down and completely covers his body, the short sleeves go past his elbows and the neck hole is practically fallen off one of his shoulders.

“One of the first things we need to do is get you some clothes.” Kon comments.

Tim simply looks down at his body and shrugs, “What’s the point? I won’t be in this body for very long, so we don’t need to waste any money.”

Kon ignores what Tim said, “We need to decide what we’re doing. Since you want to avoid the Bats it's best we get out of Gotham, we can head to my place in Metropolis or we could always head over to the farm, Ma and Pa wouldn’t mind. Following that decision what are we going to tell your clan? You need some excuse to why you’re suddenly disappearing and then give Tam a warning that you’re disappearing from WE as well.”

Tim places one hand on his chin and wraps his other arm around his chest and does that classical thinking pose. Normally it would look quite natural on Tim, but in this tiny body, to Kon it just looks super comical. A child should not look that serious when thinking about something.

“We’ll go to your apartment. It’ll give us a lot more privacy and the only thing we need to worry about is Superman and even then I don’t think he’ll be a problem as he won’t be specifically looking for us. As for my disappearance, I’ll tell everyone that I collapsed due to over working myself and not getting those ‘essentials’ you people always pester me about, then I’ll say that your dragging me away for a month because of it. It’s a believable lie because its happened before and it’ll most likely happen again.”

“Okay.” Kon easily agrees. It’s true of course, Tim has in face feinted because of the lack of ‘essentials’ as Tim put it, (it’s not like those essentials are keeping you alive or nothing but you know who needs to eat, sleep and drink water when there’s a murder case going on and when coffee is just in the other room.) The lie was believable and that’s what mattered.

“What about that mage you were fighting? What shall we do about him?” Kon questions.

Tim looks up at him with big blue eyes before turning away, “I’ll give Cass a text. I know that she’ll be hovering around Gotham for a few days, also she knows what I’ve been up to lately, I can easily pass the case onto her.”

“What about Red Robin?”

“Um, I guess I’ll spread the rumour that Red Robin got injured or something and that he’ll be out of the field for several weeks.”

Kon nods and makes a humming sound in agreement. It seems that Tim has most of it figured out already. From where he was sat on the bed, Kon watches Tim walk around on the mattress. The t-shirt dress was restricting his movements around his legs and caused him to trip a couple times. Kon would have been more concerned but it was only the covers he was falling on so he couldn’t exactly hurt himself.

In the end Tim just picks up the edge of the shirt and carries it. He makes his way over to the edge and sits down with his legs over the side and slowly starts to slide off the bed. That’s when Kon intervenes, he leans forward and grabs Tim from under the arms and easily picks him up. Ignoring Tim’s yelp Kon places him gently down on the floor and let’s go of him once he’s steady enough on his feet.

“Tim just be careful.” He tells him as the toddler starts to walk out of the room with half of the t-shirt bundled up in his arms, “On the way to Metropolis we’re buying you some clothes!” Tim doesn’t reply as he exits the room. Sighing Kon gets off the bed and stretches.

“Kon!” Tim’s suddenly shouting him from somewhere in the apartment and it sounded urgent. Kon sprints through the apartment looking for his currently tiny boyfriend. Tim had literally been on his own for seconds, what the hell could have happened in that short amount of time?

Kon pulls to a stop in front of the bathroom door to where Tim was. Kon immediately drops down and assesses Tim for injuries, finding none Kon frowns at Tim. “Tim?”

Tim sends him a pout before pointing up towards the door handle, “I can’t reach it.” He sounds really annoyed by it but Kon could not help but laugh at him. God, Tim was precious.

Kon stands up and opens the door wide enough for Tim go through. Once Tim was in he started to shut the door but Kon stopped him, “Nope. Not happening. This door is staying open. I will give you your privacy but I’m not taking any risks. This stays open and I will be in the kitchen so shout when you need me. Please just be careful.”

Tim gives him a glare before turning around, also turning Kon heads for the kitchen making sure to keep his hearing on Tim to make sure he’s alright.

Well, this is going to be interesting.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kon and Tim go shopping.

“I hate you.”

“Yeah, okay.”

“No seriously. I hate you.”

“Love you to Tim.”

“Asshole.”

“Hey! Don’t use that language.”

“Don’t tell me what to do. I can do whatever the hell I want.”

Kon sighs and just lets it go, because seriously, dealing with an adult Tim was hard enough as it is (as much as he loves Tim, he can still be a pain the ass) but toddler Tim, is just a nightmare. He watches with amusement as Tim crosses his arms over his chest and then proceeds to glare up at Kon. Well he attempts to glare, Tim’s big innocent looking eyes doesn’t make the glare at all intimidating and the pout on his face just makes him look adorable.

Kon smirks down at him, “Well if you insist on avoiding your family this is something we have to do and I’m not allowing you to just swim in your own shirts and boxers for the next month.”

Tim rolls his eyes, “We don’t need to go wasting money on useless shit.”

“Language.” Kon scolds him again.

“You normally don’t have a problem with it.”

Kon gives Tim a look, “That’s when you’re 20, not 4.”

Tim looks away from him, “I still don’t see why you had to put me in a trolley.”

“Because if I didn’t I would look like a bad ‘parent’ if I didn’t. You’re state of dress is already enough to raise eyebrows, I don’t need you to go walking around parading your badly dressed state. The last thing we need is for you to get taken away from me because of child services.” Tim rolls his eyes again but stays quiet. Conner continues to push the trolley around the shop they stopped in on the way to Metropolis.

Pretty soon after getting out of bed Conner changed into his civilian clothes and then tried to dress Tim up as much as he could. Tim was still swimming in one of his own t-shirts, but this time Conner had tried to give Tim some cover up on his legs by using some old boxers he had lying around.

It’s not ideal but it covers Tim up for the most part until they get something better. What didn’t help was Tim’s constant complaints of him not being a child, them not needing to go out and buy clothes and how it’s a whole waste of time. Kon was ready to bash his head against the wall by the time he was done. He didn’t however, from there he picked Tim up and headed for Metropolis but along the way he stopped in a shop, because he needed to get Tim some proper clothes.

That’s when the next problem came. Tim wouldn’t get in the goddamn trolley. Tim just outright refused to get in the trolley, he even went as far as stamping his foot down on the ground. At that moment Kon was completely lost at what to do, Tim was practically throwing a temper tantrum and he had no idea on what to do to make Tim quiet down. There was no way Kon could let Tim walk around, with his state of dress and lack of shoes it would raise a lot of suspicion.

Having no idea on what else to do Kon simply picked Tim up and forced him into the child compartment part of the trolley, he even used his TTK to keep him there. After a moment of struggling Tim gave up and finally accepted defeat. Thankfully there was no one around at that time to witness Kon’s struggle with the toddler. Now that would have been embarrassing.

But that leads them up to where they are now, which was strolling through the shop looking for the clothes section. Finding it Kon stops at the boy’s toddler section and stares at it blankly, there’s all different variations of t-shirts, pants, shoes in all different colours and sizes with different cartoon characters on them. He doesn’t know Tim’s size in anything, (well at least in children sizes at least, adult size he definitely knows).

He stares blankly at the section for a good few minutes before he hears laughing coming from his side. He turns and sends Tim a glare, “Dude not helping at all. You’re supposed to be helping me here.”

Tim opens his mouth to say something back at Conner, but he was cut off from a voice behind Kon, “Excuse me sir.”

Kon turns around and is face to face with a woman who’s standing a bit too close for comfort. She’s around her mid-thirties who appears to work in the shop as she’s wearing a uniform. Kon looks over her cautiously, this is the first time they’ve been approached since Tim has been turned into this body. Taking a step away from her he asks, “Yes?”

The woman smiles widely, “I was just going to ask if you needed any help, I’ve seen you stare at this section for over 5 minutes.”

Kon’s completely dumb folded for several moments, opening and closing his mouth as he looks between the clothes on the shelves and the woman. In the end his brain clicks back into place and he smiles at the woman, “Uh, no, I’m okay thank you. I can manage. Just looking you know, there’s so much to choose from, it’s usually the other half that does the shopping.” He forces out a laugh while explaining.

That’s when Tim decides to pipe up from where he’s sat in the trolley, “Mommy says that daddy is useless and how he shouldn’t be trusted to do anything himself.”

The two adults look at the child, Tim just looks up at them with wide blue eyes. It’s the look of innocence. Tim’s look seems to be winning the woman over but from Tim’s words Kon definitely caught double meaning behind them. Kon frowns and the woman coos, “Oh you have a precious one there, young man.”

Kon feels himself blush at the comment, but then the woman is looking at him with a frown, “Hope you don’t mind me asking, but why is he dressed that way?”

For the second time Kon’s mind goes blank. He hadn’t prepared for this! Damn it, he really should have thought about this beforehand, of course someone was going to question him! He knew it was suspicious from the start, but he hadn’t done anything to mentally prepare himself for it! This is going to end so badly.

When he doesn’t answer straight away the woman narrows her eyes at him and gives him a suspicious look. She goes to say something but is cut off by the same high-pitched voice as earlier, “Daddy said our house burnt down and we lost everything. I have no more clothes. So, we came shopping to get new ones and daddy said that I can have whatever I wanted!”

The woman looks down at Tim and Kon sees her features soften up, “I’m sorry to hear that sweetie. I bet you’re missing your home, now aren’t you?”

Tim shakes his head, “Nuh-uh. I don’t like the place anyway. Daddy says that our new place will be better. He says that a playground is nearby, and I get to play on it when we go there.” He grins up at them.

“That sure sounds exciting!” She says with fake enthusiasm, that’s obviously put on for kids. She’s then looking at Conner and says in her normal voice, “I’m sorry, I thought that-”

Catching onto Tim’s lie, Conner cuts her off, “It’s okay, it couldn’t have been helped. The clothes he was wearing at the time got burnt so we had to wrap him up in those for the times being. That’s why we’re here now, to get new ones.”

The woman is now looking at him sympathetically and it makes Kon feel off for some reason. He tries to shrug it off, “Yeah, well, we better get on now.” He hints for the woman to go but when she doesn’t move away from them, Conner takes hold of the trolley and starts to push it, “Thank you for the offer but I’ll manage.” He says to her. He turns and continues on down the aisle, thinking about it he’s sure he seen the shoes down this end.

A few beats later he glances over his shoulder and sees the woman starting to walk away in the opposite direction and he lets out a breath he didn’t even know he was holding. He turns his attention back on Tim who is looking up at him a smug smile, well at least he thinks that’s what it’s supposed to be.

“You’re welcome.” Tim says.

Yeah it was a smug smile.

“Dude I actually am going to thank you for that. So, thanks.” He says. “How did you come up with that anyway? Also, nice acting, who knew you could act like a child when it really comes down to it.”

“I figured we were going to need a cover storey from the moment we left my apartment, so I got thinking and thought of one when we arrived here. And shut up! I can act when I need to!”

Kon’s attention is drawn away from Tim when they reach the shoes and once again he’s struck with the same issue as before, he has no clue what size Tim is. He turns back to Tim, “Right what size do you think you are?”

Tim looks at him before looking over the selection of shoes. After a moment he’s stretching and pointing, “Them ones.” Kon reaches for the pair Tim is pointing to, Tim sighs, “No not them, the ones to the left. Another left. Yeah those.”

Kon picks them off the shelf and looks at them, they’re just plain black and Velcro strap. At first, he gapes at the size of the shoe, it’s so small and It makes his hand look ginormous as he holds it in the middle of his palm! It’s amazing that a person could be so small. Of course Kon never actually went through this stage in life himself, but if Tim meant what he said about them raising kids together then he’s looking forward to actually buying these for them and watching them grow up.

Once he realises the style of shoe that Tim has chosen Kon rolls his eyes, of course Tim would be dull and pick the most boring pair of shoes out of all the colourful ones around. Moving in front of Tim he bends down and opens the shoe up and then starts to put it on the toddler. Thankfully Tim doesn’t cause a scene as Kon squeezes the shoe onto the foot. Once he’s done he straps it up and looks up at Tim, “How does that feel?” Tim moves his foot around and Kon sees him wiggle his toes inside.

“That’s fine.” Tim comments. Kon nods and takes the shoe off his foot and places the pair in the trolley, it’s only then he gets an idea. Moving away from the trolley and ignoring Tim’s call he searches the shoes looking for something. They’ve got to have them here, they got to –

“Ah-ha!” He exclaims excitedly when he finds them, he looks through them and picks up a pair the same size as the other pair. He places them in the trolley ignoring Tim’s questions on what he just found. If he told Tim what they really were he would have a fit, so Kon will leave it as a surprise until he comes to wear them.

Grabbing the trolley once again, he starts to push it and soon enough they get to the end of the aisle. Conner realises that they need to go back up and head back to the clothes section as they have yet to grab anything. From where he was Kon stops walking and starts to turn the trolley around, it’s a lot more difficult than he thought it would be. The 180 he was trying to do was nearly a success but as it came to the last bit, the trolley sit the edge of a stand with a loud clang. Wincing, Kon backs up a little and carries on turning until he finishes the 180.

Taking a breath he starts to push the trolley back through the aisle, “Was it really that hard?” Tim questions from his seat. 

Kon refuses to look at him, “Shut up.” Is all he says. 

Tim laughs, "Seriously Kon, you've battled the most powerful people on the planet, you _are_ one of the most powerful people on the planet and yet a simple shopping trolley was difficult for you to manoeuver."

Kon chooses not to comment, he was made to fight things, he was made to replace _Superman._ This, shopping and domestic stuff, it's new to him. It's going to take a bit of getting used to.

They reach back at the clothes section and once again Kon asks Tim, “What size do you think you are?” Tim unhelpfully shrugs and Kon rubs a hand against his forehead, “Helpful. I think we’re just going to have to guess here then. See anything you like?”

Tim looks over the clothes but after a while Tim shakes his head, “No.”

Kon lets out a sigh knowing what the real problem was, “Tim there isn’t a lot here. You’re going to have to suck up your pride and wear some of these clothes.” Tim turns him and sends him a glare. Glaring back Kon tells him, “Pick your self or I will choose everything for you.”

Thankfully Tim doesn’t argue instead he just turns back to the clothes and starts to point some out. Kon picks up five different t-shirts that Tim chose and then five different pairs of pants. They pick out two different sets of pyjamas for him, (one justice league themed and the other batman themed much to Tim’s disapproval), they get him three different jackets, multiple pairs of socks and children’s underwear. Kon looks through everything to double check that they’ve got the essentials, believing they have he starts to move out of the aisle, but as he does there’s a few t-shirts that grab his attention. Smirking to himself he reaches over and picks up two of them, he shows them to Tim, “Make a choice because we’re definitely getting you one of these.”

Tim’s eyes widen at the shirt of the shirts, he’s then shaking his head, “No way. You are not putting me in neither of those.”

Kon looks back at shelves and spots more, he reaches over to grab one, “What about this one then?”

“Absolutely not.”

Kon looks at the t-shirts in his hands, Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman designs cover the front. Glancing at Tim’s disgusted look, he shrugs and puts all three in the trolley. Tim may not like it but at least Kon will get a few kicks out of it.

Happy with what’s in the trolley Kon heads to pay for everything. He just hopes that all the clothes fit him because they’ve just estimated with sizing, but either way if the clothes are too big on Tim at least they’ll fit better than what he’s got on now. Kon’s not too worried about the cost of everything, a bonus of having a stinky rich boyfriend who allows you to use their card every now and again, so really Tim is paying for it and not Kon.

After once again getting questioned for Tim’s state of dress and paying for the items Kon and Tim leave the shop with three full bags. Kon puts Tim on his shoulders and carries the bags in both hands, he walks a good distance away from the shop and out of sight of anyone else before lifting up into the air and once again heading for Metropolis.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know that there is a mixture between American phrases/sayings and English phrases/sayings within this chapter, I am English so I'm not entirely educated on American life and how some things are said and done. Also, I know that they are actually American but please bare with it. 
> 
> Anyway I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and stay tuned for the next update :D


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tim's first taste of childish instinct and bath time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [ My tumblr](https://awhitehead17.tumblr.com/)

As soon as they reach Conner’s apartment in Metropolis they change Tim out of his over sized clothes into the new store brought ones. Conner was pretty pleased with himself when they found out he brought the right size in everything. Tim was dressed in a light blue t-shirt with a green dinosaur on it, some grey sweat pants and blue socks. There was no need for a jacket at the moment as it’s warm enough inside to be without one.

Kon looks down at Tim, “If I go in the shower, will you be alright on your own for a few minutes?”

Tim looks up at him and narrows his childish eyes, “Of course I’ll be fine! Who do you take me for?” He snaps at him, however his high-pitched voice takes away any bite from the sentence.

Kon simply puts his hands up in a placating gesture, “Sorry, sorry. I was just asking and double checking. Please be careful and shout me if anything happens.” After seeing Tim’s nod Kon heads for the bathroom. Reaching the door, he calls out over his shoulder, “After I’m done, I’m giving you a bath!”

He doesn’t hear Tim reply but he knows that he’s sulking over it. Kon’s not sure whether he’s looking forward to it or dreading it. It’ll be funny bathing Tim and seeing how much he hates it, but at the same time Tim will be a little shit to get in the bath and Kon doesn’t know if he has the patience to put up with a temper tantrum. He’ll have to cross that bridge when he gets to it, as for now he turns on his shower and gets himself cleaned up while keeping an ear out for Tim.

* * *

 

Tim waits until he hears the shower turn on to move from the living room and into the kitchen. There was a gnawing feeling inside his stomach and its starting to get on his nerves. When did he last eat? He hasn’t eaten inside this body yet so at least half a day? Maybe more? Now if he was in his normal body he’d be able to ignore the feeling but inside this stupid child’s body, it was beginning to hurt him.

Kon needs to learn to get his priorities right. He’s surprised that his boyfriend didn’t even hear his stomach growling earlier– wait. Can he even refer Kon as his boyfriend when he’s in this body? Is it wrong and is it weird? He figures if he said it out loud then yes, that would be weird but if he just thinks it instead then that would surely be better, right? He shakes those thoughts away, he’ll just refer Kon as Kon for now, out loud and inside his own head.

He knows Kon is trying and he also knows that Kon has never dealt with anyone de-aged before, so Tim is willing to be patient for his sake. However, there are certain things that Tim will not stand for while he’s stuck in this body and that is getting treated as if he was an actual child. He doesn’t need to be put in the child compartment in a trolley or have help while having a bath.

Tim’s cut out of his thoughts when his stomach growls. He enters the kitchen and goes straight for the cupboards he can reach, which weren’t many. After finding nothing in two of them he opens the final one to find a few boxes of cereal next to each other. Tim looks at them before looking over at the fridge, well there goes that idea, he can’t reach it to grab the milk. He looks back at the cereal again before deciding to have one of them dry, sometimes they don’t taste all that bad without milk and he’s too hungry to actually care.

Tim drags the box out of the cupboard and places it to the side before moving over to where the bowls are. He digs around to see if he can find a plastic bowl instead of the ceramic ones that Kon has. Unfortunately, Kon doesn’t have any plastic bowls meaning Tim needs to use one of the ceramic ones. As carefully as he can, Tim grabs the top bowl and starts to lift it up from where its been stacked. It feels heavy in his now tiny hands and its awkward to hold. He thankfully gets it out of the cupboard with little trouble and starts to make his way over to where he left the box of cereal on the floor.

His little mission was going well and he even made it half way before something happened. He doesn’t even know what exactly happened, one second he was walking and then the next he was on the floor and a loud smashing sound was ringing out. From where he fell on his front Tim looks at the now smashed bowl and to where all the pieces have spread out to.

He was about to get up and start clearing up the pieces when he hears the shower turn off. Tim instantly freezes in his spot. Kon. What is Kon going to do when he sees this? What punishment will he carry out when he sees this.

_Punishment… what?_

Before he could think anything else Kon is speaking from behind him, “Tim everything okay, I heard a smash…”

Tim looks behind him to see Kon coming in through the kitchen door, his hair was dripping wet and his clothes were sticking to his body. Tim opens his mouth to say something but nothing comes out. Kon spots him down on the floor and immediately picks him up and checks him over for injuries, “Geeze Tim are you okay, you’re not hurt right?”

As Kon pats his hands down Tim’s body Tim can’t help but blurt out “I’m sorry! It was an accident!” Kon stops in his movements to look at Tim, a frown appearing on his face, however before he could say anything Tim also blurts out “Please don’t punish me!”

In that moment both Tim and Kon freeze. Kon looks super confused and is looking at Tim with wide eyes and Tim simply slapped his own hand over his mouth to stop him from saying anything else. After a few beats Kon was the one to break the silence, “Punish you? Why the hell would I punish you?” Kon looks away from Tim to the mess on the floor and back again, Tim sees the moment it clicks in Kon’s head, “Because of the bowl? Tim it was an accident I’m not going to punish you for that.”

Removing his hand from his mouth Tim says, “I know, I don’t even know why I said it. It just slipped out. Childish instinct I guess?” He shrugs.  

Kon looks thoughtful for a moment. Whatever he was thinking Tim sees him shake his head to clear those thoughts, Kon is then looking at him once again, “Sure you’re okay?”

Tim nods, “I’m okay.”

Kon nods accepting the answer, he then looks at the broken bowl on the floor and the cereal box, “Are you hungry?”

Tim sheepishly nods, “Yeah.”

Kon slaps his hands on his head in panic, “Oh my god Tim, I am so sorry! I didn’t even think about food or if you were hungry or thirsty, I just wanted a shower to clean myself off and then to clean you up, I hadn’t even considered giving you food.”

“Calm down, Kon!” Tim snaps at him. The half Kryptonian was working himself up into hysteria. “I get it, it was a mistake okay. No harm done.”

Rolling his eyes Kon says, “Of course you would say that, now I just feel bad.”

Tim smiles, “Well you could make it up to me by making me a sandwich.”

“Yeah okay.” With that Kon moves about the kitchen making him some food. Once he was finished he disappeared into the living room and Tim followed behind him. Tim watches as Kon places the plate down on the sofa and as he motions to it, “Sit here and eat while I clear up the kitchen.”

Tim wordlessly moves to the couch and starts trying to haul himself up on it. He struggles to get on it, the first attempt he simply slid back down on the floor, the second attempt he jumped up but lost his grip and fell off, when he was about to try for the third time he feels Kon’s hands grab him from under the armpits. Kon was about to lift him when Tim snaps, “Don’t even think about it! I can do it! Go clean up the goddamn kitchen.”

Kon lets him go and mutters, “language,” as he moves away.

Just to be spiteful, Tim shouts at his retreating back, “I can do whatever the fuck I want.”

Tim finally gets on to the couch after his forth attempt. Once he’s sitting comfortably he realises that he’s breathing deeply, _stupid body and its stupid stamina, goddamn it_. Once his breathing is relatively normal Tim makes a start on eating the sandwich Kon made him. He lets out an annoyed sigh however when he sees what Kon has done to it, he’s cut it up into four small squares and has even cut the crusts of the edges. Deciding not to make a big deal over it Tim just picks up a square and begins to eat it.

When he was half way through the third piece Kon comes and joins him on the couch with his own sandwich. They sit in silence and finish eating, after Tim was done he felt so much better as the feeling in his stomach has eased and now has stopped hurting.

“Hey,” Kon says getting his attention, “Why did you think I was going to punish you? You sounded really panicked when you asked me not to.”

Tim sighs and looks away, starting to mess with the hem of his t-shirt, “I don’t know Kon, it just slipped out. Like I said, it must have been a childish instinct, that ‘I did something wrong therefore I have to be told off’.”

Kon lets out a humming noise, “hmm, you know I can’t ever remember Jon being like that.”

“Well that’s Jon, I bet he never did anything wrong therefore he’d never had to be punished. It’s what parents do, they punish their child when they’ve done something wrong.”

“It seems a little extreme to punish you over a broken bowl.”

Tim shrugs not liking the way this conversation was going. Thankfully Kon must have picked up on his mood because he’s standing up and taking the plates to the kitchen. A moment later he’s waltzing in with a smirk on his face, “Well now that’s all done, it’s bath time.”

Tim’s head snaps up from where he was looking at his tiny feet, (he can’t believe they were ever that small), and looks at him with narrowed eyes, “Hell no.”

Kon laughs, “You don’t get a choice, here Tim.”

“I can bathe myself.”

Kon stands straight and crosses his arms over his chest and looks deadly serious, “As an adult of course, but I am not letting you have a bath without supervision. Either come with me willingly or I’ll make you.”

Tim debates his options, he could go with Kon and make this easy for the both of them and even avoid some embarrassing moments or on the other hand he could try and escape him, which realistically wouldn’t last long or end well. Reluctantly he slides off the sofa and at a slow pace he starts to head for the bathroom. When he passes Kon a hand goes through his hair with the comment of “Good choice, and I love that you even had a think about it.”

Tim tries to slap Conner’s hand away from his hair but says nothing to his comment. Tim walks into the bathroom and stops waiting for Kon, the half Kryptonian follows him in and shuts the door and even locks it. After hearing the click Tim frowns at him, “Why?”

Kon looks at him before moving over to the bath and turning the water on, “Because I don’t want to take any chances of you running away, that’s why.” He puts the plug in and begins to patiently wait for it to fill up slightly.

Tim stands around awkwardly unsure about what to do, should he get undressed or wait for Kon to tell him too? He can’t remember the last time he’s had to have someone give him a bath like this (well without being injured of course, but even then he’s often on his own in the actual bathroom while someone waits on the other side of the door). When he was young, for the first time, he doesn’t remember getting helped like this, he was often on his own and had to attend cleaning himself independently.

“Tim,” Conner is calling him, he turns and looks up at him, “Do you want any bubbles?”

“What? He asks, “Bubbles? Why the hell would I want bubbles? Conner, are you forgetting how old I really am?”

Kon just raises an eyebrow and turns away, “Well despite your answer you’re getting bubbles. Everyone loves a bubble bath.”

Tim resits the urge to rub his hand across his forehead. Another few minutes go by and finally Conner turns the water off and tests it, “I think that’s about right. When you get in it you’ll have to let me know how it is.”

Tim nods but doesn’t move from his spot. Kon seems to notice his hesitance and crouches down so he’s level with Tim, wordlessly he reaches forward and pulls him close. Gently, Kon lifts Tim’s shirt over his head and places it to the side, he then grabs Tim’s pants and pulls them down. Tim helps him by lifting a leg at a time, so the pants can easily slide off. Before Tim could think of anything about being naked in front of Kon in a child’s body, hands were grabbing his sides and lifting him up and placing him into the water.

Somehow Kon had managed to get the water temperature just right, where it wasn’t too hot or too cold. The water came up just past his hips once he’s sat down and the bubbles that Kon insisted on came up to his chest. Tim bats at them to get them away, they don’t go instead they just cut in half and float else where next to him.

Next to him he hears Conner laugh, “You look like you want to murder those bubbles Tim.”

He crosses his arms over his chest and glares at the white bubbles around him, “That’s because I do.”

“Come on Tim, don’t be like that. You know it’s a shame that we don’t have any kid toys that we could put in here for you. Anyway, put your head back.”

Tim does as he’s told and watches a Kon scoops water up in a cup and pour it over Tim’s head to get his hair wet. Tim shivers as the water runs down his back. Kon does this a few times and Tim adjusts to it, after the second time he realises that Kon is using his TTK to create a barrier to stop the water down running onto his face.

Kon moves onto getting the shampoo and starts to wash his hair, massaging it into his scalp. Tim couldn’t help but close his eyes at the movement, it just felt so nice and Kon is being super gentle with his administrations. He opens his eyes again when he hears Kon snicker, “What?”

“Hang on let me get my phone.” Is all he says, Kon dunks his hands in the water and then dries them on a towel before disappearing from the bathroom. Seconds later he comes back with the device and holds it out in front of Tim with the front camera on.

Tim stops himself from face palming as soon as he sees what he looks like. Of course Kon had to go and give him a mohawk. He looked so ridiculous that he couldn’t help but laugh a little, “Really Kon?”

Kon grins at him while taking away the phone and putting it by the sink away from the water, “I couldn’t help myself, you look so adorable!”

“I am not adorable, I look fucking ridiculous you asshole.”  Tim runs his hands through his hair, ruining Kon’s work. His hand comes away covered in bubbles which he gets rid of by dipping his hands in the water.

“Language.” Kon reprimands him.

Tim scowls at him but gets an idea as Kon leans over the bath. When Kon scoops up some water into the cup Tim splashes him with a big wave of water. Afterwards Kon does not look amused but Tim spots the gleam in his eyes that suggests otherwise.

“Did you seriously just do that?” Kon asks him.

Tim shrugs, “I couldn’t help myself.” He quotes Kon from a minute ago. The next thing Tim knew was a heavy down fall of water was being dropped on his head. The water runs down his body and back into the bath followed by shampoo trailing down his body which causes Tim to swipe at his eyes to stop it getting into them.

Wordlessly Tim shifts in the bath and kicks his feet as fast as he could, causing more water waves to go over Kon. Kon simply laughs and starts to splash him back. For several minutes it was a water fight between them, both of them splashing each other as much as they can.

They eventually stop and Tim finds himself unable to stop smiling and laughing, especially when he sees how drenched Kon is. Kon is also laughing as he manoeuvres Tim around in the bath to finish washing the shampoo out of his hair, by now most of it was gone but it doesn’t hurt to give it one more rinse through.

Kon picks Tim up and out of the bath and places him on the floor and wraps a somehow still dry towel around him, “I need to grab you some dry clothes, think you can start to dry yourself off until I get back?” Tim gives him a look and Kon then rolls his eyes, “Of course you can because you’re ‘not a child’.”

Kon leaves the soaking wet room and Tim starts to dry himself off, Kon comes back with another outfit and takes over for Tim. Once Tim is dry and is in fresh clothes Kon starts to dry his hair, he lets out a laugh when he finishes with the task, “God Tim, if you thought you looked ridiculous before then look at this”, Kon reaches for his phone and shows him.

Tim’s hair is a birds nest, bits are sticking up and out all over the place. Tim rolls his eyes and starts trying to pat down his hair “Thanks for that Kon, pass me a hair brush please.”

Instead of giving it to Tim for him to do, Kon starts to comb his hair for him. Tim doesn’t protest, finding that Kon’s administrations with his hair relaxing. Once he was done Kon stands up and heads out the bathroom to get himself some dry clothes, Tim follows him into the bedroom.

Once dressed Kon turns to Tim, “So now that’s done, what do you want to do?”

“Well _you_ have to go and dry the bathroom and clean up. I’ll go and turn the TV on or something.”

Kon looks like he wants to protest but he doesn’t, instead he says, “Be careful okay.”

Tim waves his concern away, “Yeah, yeah, I’ll be fine.” He then heads for the living room and sets the TV up. With some struggle Tim manages to use the remote to put on an old film and waits for Kon to come back. 15 minutes later Kon walks in and flops down beside him, he picks Tim up and settles down on the couch lying sideways with Tim resting on his chest. Tim squirms on Kon’s chest trying to get comfortable, it takes a few moments but in the end he’s tucked his head under Kon’s chin and sprawled out over his chest. One of Kon’s arm wraps around him and the other starts threading his fingers through Tim’s hair.

Tim sighs happily, feeling content for the first time since this whole mess began. With Kon’s fingers running through his hair and the bonus of Kon’s warmth he feels himself drifting off to sleep. One of the last things he remembers before passing out was how it might not be so bad to be a kid after all.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A happy day turns sour and Kon goes to the exact people Tim didn't want him to to get some help.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait for this chapter, it was delayed for a number of reasons but I'm not going to get into that. 
> 
> Here's the next chapter, enjoy! :D

Kon woke up first. He blinked sleep away from his eyes and shifted on the bed, though before he gets up he gently removes Tim off his chest and onto the mattress, he watches with a smile as the toddler curls up in the blankets. Kon gets out of bed and does his morning routine, trying to complete it before Tim wakes up. It’s now been five days since Tim got de-aged and Kon would like to say that he’s handling it pretty well, by now he’s learnt that toddler Tim apparently likes to sleep in in the mornings, meaning he can get some stuff done before he wakes up.

He’s had a shower and is now making breakfast for them both when Tim comes into the kitchen in his Justice League pyjamas. His hair is a bird’s nest, his eyes are only still half open and he lets out a yawn.

Kon smiles down at him, “Morning sleepy head, want some breakfast?”

Tim doesn’t say anything, instead he turns around and heads for the living room, Kon smirks and picks up the two plates and follows him. He puts the plates down on the sofa before going back for the drinks. When Kon returns to the living room Tim was already sat on the sofa, watching TV and munching away at his breakfast. Kon places down the drinks and picks up his own plate and begins to eat his own food.

While he eats Kon can’t get over on how domestic this situation is. Them sat down, watching morning TV and eating breakfast together. This is what normal families do right? Granted they’re far from normal but Kon can’t help but think about the future and if this is what it’s going to be like if (when) they have kids. Kon bets he'll be the one to get up early and sort the kids out for school while Tim wakes up a bit later and has a cup of coffee before going to WE. Or if it had been a rough night on patrol, Kon gets the kids ready for school before going and checking on Tim and his potential injuries.

Getting so lost in his head Kon hadn’t even realised that Tim was poking him to get his attention, he looks down to see Tim looking up at him with wide concerned eyes, “Are you okay?”

Kon smiles easily and runs a hand through Tim’s devilish hair, “I’m fine, just got lost in my thoughts that’s all.”

Tim eyes him sceptically but doesn’t say anything else as he turns his attention back on the TV. Kon nudges him lightly, gaining his attention again, “How about we go out today? Get some fresh air and have a change of scenery.”

Tim pulls a face and Kon has to stop himself from squishing his cheeks together because Tim is so adorable, “I rather not, thanks.” Tim tells him.

Frowning Kon asks, “Why not? We haven’t left the apartment since we’ve arrived, it’d do us some good.”

Tim shakes his head, “it’s only going to cause us problems Kon.”

“No, it won’t. It’ll be fun, since it’s nice out we can go and get some ice-cream or something.”

Sighing, Tim looks at him, “You’re not going to let this go, are you?”

Kon grins at him, “Nope.”

“Fine.”

“Awesome,” Kon beams at him. He then gets up and puts the empty dishes into the kitchen before going back to the living room. In a swift move, he sweeps up Tim in his arms and chucks him over his shoulder and holds tightly to his legs. Tim lets out a yelp at the movement and then starts to pound his tiny fists against Kon’s back.

Ignoring his protests, Kon carries a squirming Tim to the bedroom and chucks him down onto the bed. Kon climbs onto the mattress and captures Tim in his hands

“Kon what are you-”

Kon ignores him in favour of running his fingers down Tim’s side and underneath his feet, Tim lets out an amazingly high-pitched squeal as Kon tickles him. Tim tries his hardest to get away from Kon by squirming in his grasp, but nothing works and to add to Tim’s torture Kon uses his TTK as an extra pair of hands to tickle him.

“Kon! Stop it, please!” Tim pleads him through his giggle fits.

After five minutes of relentless tickling Kon lets him go and gets off the bed to find Tim’s outfit for the day. As he sorts out the clothes, he can hear Tim breathing heavily on the bed while giggles still consume him.

Kon smiles to himself, learning that Tim was ticklish in this body has been one of his favourite things so far. He only found that he was ticklish by accident but from there Kon makes sure to tickle him at least once a day, it makes Tim laugh and relax and it’s something that any child hates to admit that they enjoy. Kon wonders to himself if adult Tim was ticklish like toddler Tim, that’s certainly an experiment Kon will have to do once Tim is normal again. The other thing he found out is that Tim likes his head to be petted in someway, whether it be fingers running through his hair or a light head massage, it relaxes him and even makes him sleepy which Kon finds very helpful when it comes to night or if he decides that Tim should have a nap.

Once he has got Tim’s clothes, a pair of blue jeans and a plain red shirt, Kon goes back to the bed where Tim now has mostly gotten control of himself. Kon lays out Tim’s clothes in front of him and lets Tim get himself change, more than once Tim has snapped at him for trying to help him out with such a simple task, also with the reminder that he doesn’t need to be treated like a child. This time Kon only interferes once, and that’s only because Tim tries to shove his head through the arm hole instead of the head hole. Kon’s polite enough to not make a comment on it.

Once Tim was dressed Kon took him into the bathroom so he could do what he needed to and then once that was all done Kon gives Tim his shoes to put on. Tim gives the shoes a funny look before sending that look at Kon, “I didn’t pick these out at the store.”

Kon shakes his head, “No you didn’t, I did.”

Tim reluctantly puts the shoes on and it was only when he stood up and took a few steps that Tim realised why Kon had hid them from him in the first place, he looks up at Kon in displeasure, “Really?”

Kon grins down at him, “Yep, now come on let’s go.”

* * *

 

On the way back from getting ice-cream, Kon decided that they should have a walk through the local park. It had been a good couple of hours at the café where they had their ice-cream, at least he enjoyed himself, he hopes that Tim enjoyed it too.

When they were at the café multiple of women came up to them and cooed at Tim and even eyed up Kon. They had complimented Kon on how well Tim was behaving compared to the other screaming kids in the café, Kon had just smiled lightly and thanked them. When they left he couldn’t help but laugh at the displeasure showing on Tim’s face. Clearly being called cute and adorable by strangers didn’t settle well with him.

After that their time at the café was uneventful, they quickly finished their ice-cream and then left and that’s when Kon decided to walk through the park for a bit before they return back to the apartment. It was a nice warm day and Kon enjoyed soaking up some yellow sun, it also seemed like Tim didn’t actually mind it for once either.

The toddler was walking next to him, never straying too far out of reach. Kon hadn’t even needed to give Tim a talk about walking to far from him because his de-aged boyfriend had practically been glued to his leg the entire time, Kon didn’t mind as it just made it easier to keep track of him. Of course he could just hold Tim’s hand or even pick him up but when Kon suggested those ideas Tim glared at him and Kon got the message and decided not to push it.

The park they were going through was busy with people, families were out spending time together, elderly couples out for a stroll, kids were running around screaming and laughing a few young couples were sat down on the grass making out.

Kon smiles lightly at the scene around him, it’s just a normal day and once again it’s feeling very domestic. Only if Tim was in his normal body and then they could be joining those couples on the grass making out in the bright sunlight.

“Hi!” A voice squeaks out to them and effectively snapping Kon out of his head. He looks down to find a young girl in a flowery pink dress grinning at them, or more specifically grinning at Tim. “Do you want to come play with us? We need one more to make it even.”

Kon looks down to see Tim looking at her like he has no idea what she just said, Kon was about to come to his rescue when another voice speaks out, “Daisy, what have I told you about speaking to strangers!”

A woman comes up to them and glares down at Daisy. Daisy smiles sheepishly at her, “Sorry mommy, I just asked if he wanted to play with us.”

Daisy’s mother softens her look before looking up at Kon with an apologetic smile, “Sorry about my daughter, she’s always eager to make new friends.”

Kon smiles back, “No problem, no harm done.”

“Shall we go play?” Daisy asks again impatiently, still grinning at Tim.

“Daisy what have I said about asking parents as well as others if they can play or not.” The mother scolds her child lightly.

Instead of answering her parent Daisy’s eyes direct up to Kon, “Can he come play with us please sir?” She asks him innocently.

Kon looks at her before looking around the park, just beyond them he sees a large group of small kids split into two groups, that must be where she’s come from. He then looks down at Tim to find him plastered against Kon’s leg. Inside his head Kon sighs, Tim’s going to hate him for this.

He looks down at the girl smiling, “He’s allowed to if he wants to, as long as you’re careful.”

The girl squeals and lunges for Tim and before he could properly react the girl has him by the hand and is dragging him towards the large group of kids. Kon can’t help but smile for different reasons, he’s grinning because he can’t wait to see how Tim copes in this situation and he’s smiling because once again that domestic feeling comes back.

“I’m sorry once again about my daughter, your son seems lovely though.” The woman comments next to him while they watch the kids all mingle.

“Yeah he is, a little shy but he’s a good kid.” Kon tells her easily, hoping that it explains Tim’s attitude towards her daughter.

The woman laughs, “Well they all start out like that, don’t they? Once he meets others he’ll eventually open up, it’s only a matter of time.”

Kon nods along to her words, as if agreeing with everything she just said.

That’s how the rest of the afternoon goes, Kon spends his time sat down next to the woman on a park bench as they watch the kids run around. Nearly the whole time Kon had his eyes on Tim, only breaking away to look at the woman next to him before looking back. Tim seemed to be enjoying himself, at first he was clearly hesitant and uncomfortable but once they started to play their game, tag he thinks it is, he saw Tim relax and let himself get into the game being played.

As time moved on the group of kids slowly started to get smaller as parents took them back home. When there was only four of them left Kon decided to go and grab Tim and take him back to his apartment, he can guarantee that today has worn him out.

The woman next to him also decides to grab her daughter at the same time. They moved to the kids and called them over, Daisy immediately ran up to her mother and chatted happily at her, telling all kinds of stories that happened while they played tag. Tim on the other hand came up to Kon slowly, with a small smile on his face. Kon crouches down and ruffles his hair, “Hey, have fun?”

Tim only nodded and lifted his arms up towards Kon. For a moment Kon stares at him completely baffled, unsure on what Tim wanted him to do.

“Up.” Tim tells him and makes a grabby motion with his hands.

Mentally smacking himself on the head, Kon reaches out and picks up Tim and places him on his hip. Tim instantly shuffles around in his hold before settling down with his head resting on his shoulder.

Kon grins at him and then looks over at woman to see her holding a still chatting Daisy, “Well I definitely better get him home, see you around I guess.”

“See you.” She smiles back and starts to walk in the opposite direction to Kon. Kon walks out of the park and back onto the streets with Tim still in his arms. He wasn’t asleep just yet but Kon bets it’s only a matter of time.

Kon walks back to his apartment and when he gets to the front door Kon shifts Tim so he’s holding him with one arm rather than two, it wasn’t hard, and it wasn’t like Tim weighed a lot anyway. He gets his keys out of his pockets and unlocks the door and enters his living space with Tim dosing on his shoulder.

Right, should he let Tim have a nap before giving him something to eat or should he make him eat and then have a nap?

Kon’s debate was cut short when a voice speaks out to him, “Give us the boy and there will be no trouble.”

Freezing and tensing up, Kon turns around to find a sword pointed at him. Looking further he’s greeted with multiple men in black suits and one woman who was holding the sword at him. Turning his body slightly he tries to get Tim out of their sight.

“Give us the boy, and no one will be hurt.” Talia threatens him again.

Instinctively his hold tightens on Tim and he only glares at her. She isn’t taking Tim anywhere.

A few heavy beats later all hell breaks loose. The men in the black suits all jump at Kon and Kon does his best to beat them away without hurting Tim. He uses his powers to sweep them away but they just keep coming at him. A minute or two go by and Kon was about to say screw it and launch himself out of the window when suddenly a green light covers the room and Kon suddenly feels sick to the stomach, his vision blurs and the room begins to spin.

Kryptonite. They have fucking kryptonite.

Kon lets out a grunt as he feels a punch collide with his head and then a gasp as a kick connects with painfully with his stomach. From next to him he hears Tim yelp, “Kon!” Kon feels Tim get snatched from his hold and he lashes out trying to get Tim back into his own arms. It doesn’t work, the kryptonite gets shoved in his face even further and then he finds himself down on the floor.

“Kon!”

Kon tries to push himself back up, Tim needs him goddammit! He gets to his hands and knees when he’s suddenly kicked back down, a hand weaves its way into Kon’s hair and yanks his head up, a threatening voice appears next to his ear, “I wouldn’t do that if I was you. If you want to keep him alive then don’t follow us. If I find you within a 10-mile radius of our plane, you can kiss the boy goodbye.”

Kon can only groan in response as she lets his head go.

“Kon!” He hears Tim cry again. “Let me go! Kon please!”

“That’s enough!” Talia shouts, “Shut him up and board the plane, the meeting with my father cannot be missed.”

Kon slowly works his way back up to his knees but by the time he was shakily standing on his two feet they were gone. Tim was gone.

He lets out a cry of rage before slumping back down on the floor trying to regain his strength back now that the kryptonite was gone. He wanted to cry, he had let Tim down. He had let them kidnap Tim who was currently stuck in a child’s body and unable to defend himself. God he is never going to forgive himself for this.

He has to get him back, but how? If he gets up and follows that plane Talia will know and do something to Tim if she hasn’t already. He can’t risk it but what else is there to do?

He lets out a heavy sigh as he thinks of the solution. It’s something he particularly doesn’t want to do but it’s all he’s really got. Tim will hate him even more now than before because of what he’s about to do. He pushes himself up into a sitting position, now feeling his strength slowly coming back, and gets his phone out of his pocket. Scrolling through his contacts he picks out one and rings it. It rings a few times before someone answers it.

“Hey Dick, I need your help.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The rescue mission

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for the long wait for this chapter, please forgive me and here is the next update!
> 
> Warning! Hints towards paedophilia (because Ra's is a creep) within this chapter, nothing explicit but I wanted to give you a heads up.

“Let me get this straight. Firstly, you lied to us about Tim fainting and you taking him away to recover. Secondly, Tim got _de-aged_ into a four-year-old body and you didn’t inform us of what happened because Tim didn’t want us to know and thirdly, Tim just got kidnapped by the League of Assassins for whatever reason and you couldn’t stop them because they had kryptonite.”

Kon winces and avoids making eye contact, “Yeah, that pretty much sums it up.”

The silence that follows is heavy and Kon would rather be anywhere else but in the Batcave. He had flown over to Gotham once he nearly had all his strength back. When he got to the cave he was meet with three pairs of eyes. Of course all of Tim’s brothers happened to be in the area when he called. At least Bats wasn’t here, but then again Nightwing is just as scary, if not more, than the main man himself.

Clapping brakes the silence, “Brilliant, absolutely brilliant.” Jason laughs out looking at them all with a smirk.

“Jay.” Dick scolds him.

Jason carelessly shrugs while Damian says, “Of course Drake would be pathetic enough to get himself into a mess.”

“Dami.” Dick scolds the teen. He lets out a sigh and pinches the bridge of his nose, “Right, Conner. How long ago was Tim kidnapped?”

“About an hour ago, pretty much right before I called you.”

“Brilliant.” The man sighs heavily, “Who specifically took Tim?”

“Talia.”

“Tt, why would mother want that imbecile?” Damian scoffs out.

“It must be Ra’s doing. She wouldn’t have bothered else.” Dick says distractedly, he then walks over to the computer and starts to type on it. After a minute of silence Dick turns back around and faces Kon, “I’m assuming that Tim has nothing on him that has a tracker implanted on it does he.”

Kon winces again, “You’d be assuming correctly, I took him shopping to get new clothes.”

From the side there was a snort from Jason but Kon ignores him in favour of watching Dick turn back to the computer.

Letting out a sigh Dick says, “Right, I can imagine three potential places that Talia would take Tim to meet with Ra’s. We’ll suit up and head out to the smaller two bases before checking the big base. Damian and I will go to one while Jason and Conner go to the other. If both seem to be a bust we’ll meet and head to the main base, if one place is the correct area then the other team get there as soon as they can.”

Kon and Jason both nod in agreement with the plan and then Jason makes a move to go and get suited up. Damian lets out a scoff and crosses his arms over his chest, “I am not being involved for a rescue mission for Drake. The moron got himself in the mess he can get himself out of it.”

Kon watches as Dick sends Damian a sharp glare, “Damian, you either you come with us or you go to the farm where I know Jon is currently staying at.”

“Grayson!”

Apparently, Dick isn’t taking any bullshit, “You are not staying here on your own, Bruce and Alfred are currently in Japan, so they can’t look after you. So make a choice before I make one for you.”

Kon watches with amusement as the teen opens his mouth to protest but then closes it at Dick’s glare. The teenager then stalks off to where Jason had gone, muttering something about how he isn’t the incompetent one and doesn’t need babysitting. Kon wisely stays silent through the exchange and thanks god that he doesn’t have Damian as a little brother, he’s a real handful.

Dick wordlessly moves around the cave, now suiting himself up. Once he’s done Jason and Damian reappear in full suits. Kon hadn’t needed to change, he had taken off his civilian clothing before coming to the cave, so he was already set to go.

“Robin and I will take the batplane, Superboy if you could carry Hood that would save the hassle of taking two planes out.”

Kon glances up at Jason to find the man already looking at him with a serious look, “You better not drop me Clone.”

“Tt, he might do us all a favour if he did Todd.” Damian quips out.

Jason’s look turns from Kon to his younger brother, “Watch it brat, or next time I’ll cut you grapple line.”

Kon frowns at Jason, feeling a little insulted. Of course he’s not going to say anything about his feelings to the man because he isn’t stupid. He lets the comment go and turns back to Nightwing, “Where we are going?”

Nightwing brings up a map on the computer and points to a place on it, one of which Kon hasn’t heard of before. Something must have showed on his face because Nightwing lets out a laugh, “Don’t worry, Hood knows where it is, he’ll direct you. Let’s get going.”

While Nightwing and Robin head for the batplane, Conner jumps into the air and begins flying. He floats over to the Red Hood and holds out his hand. The other man grasps it tightly and Conner easily lifts him up off the floor.

“Not carrying me bridal style Clone?”

Kon snorts, “That’s reserved for Tim only.”

“Whatever.”

Kon shakes his head, Jason was an odd case. At first Kon disliked him, a lot. He had tried to kill Tim on multiple occasions and was once labelled as mentally unstable. But as the years have gone by Kon knows that somehow Tim had grown close to Jason and that they now see each other as brothers.

When Kon and Tim started dated he avoided the man at all costs, he never trusted him. It wasn’t until Tim spoke to him about Jason that Kon started to try and get to know the man, at first he wasn’t happy but as the years have worn on he found that Jason wasn’t too bad as a person and that they can get along.

Kon follows the batplane out of the cave but then once he was in open air he turns in the opposite direction to head for his and Jason’s own location.

* * *

 

It was a bust. Their location was practically deserted except from a few ninja. It was easy to say that both Conner and Jason weren’t happy about the fact. Their moods decreased even further when they radioed Nightwing and Robin to find out that their location was also a bust.

The four of them made a plan to regroup and head for the main location Nightwing had pointed out. Superboy was to fly to the plane where they would enter the place as a group and then spread out to see if they could find Tim.

By the time Conner gets to the plane it’s been nearly four hours since Tim had been taken and Conner feels guiltier by the minute. He hopes Tim is okay and that they haven’t hurt him, in his current body Tim wouldn’t be able to defend himself and he bets that he has a low pain tolerance to go with it. God dammit, only if he hadn’t let Tim get taken then none of this wouldn’t be happening.

“Superboy.” Conner’s head snaps up at the sound of his name, he sees Red Hood looking at him, (or at least his head was facing his way, it’s hard to tell where he was looking due to the helmet covering his eyes), “It’s not your fault.”

Kon opens his mouth to protest but Hood cuts him off, “No. Stop that pathetic self-loathing thing you’re doing. It wasn’t your fault that he got taken and Tim won’t blame you either.”

Kon opts for not saying anything. Despite what the man says it doesn’t change how he feels, and he won’t feel better until he has Tim in his arms again.

It’s another half an hour on the plane before they get to the location. The four of them sneak into the place unnoticed and immediately start to scout out the place for any sign of Tim. Another 10 minutes go by and Kon finds nothing on his end, however he starts to hear noises of swords clashing and grunts from the other side of the place. He flies over to the location to find Robin and Nightwing engaged in a battle with a load of ninja. Kon joins them and it wasn’t long after him that Red Hood appears and joins the party.

It seems never-ending. Kon was constantly punching, jumping, dodging and kicking a ninja away from him. At some point he had noticed that both Robin and Red Hood had disappeared from the fight, leaving just him and Nightwing to deal with the never-ending wave of ninja assassins.

Eventually both Nightwing and Superboy defeat the ninja, their bodies were scattered around them from where they knocked each one unconscious.

Putting his escrima sticks on his back Nightwing says, “Come on let’s go. We need to find the other two and Tim.”

Conner follows Nightwing closely, letting the older man lead them through the place. They go through many corridors and stairways that it causes Conner’s head to spin. After about 10 minutes of running around the place they finally find where the two other bats had disappeared too, but not only that, they find Tim as well.

Superboy and Nightwing burst into a large room and find Robin pointing a sword at his grandfather and the Red Hood pointing a gun at him with one hand and in the other he held a tiny body.

Conner’s breath catches in his throat as he catches sight of Tim. From the angle he was looking from Tim didn’t appear to be hurt, but Conner could see that he was shaking in Jason’s arms. His little arms are curled around his brother’s neck and his fists are clenched tightly holding onto Jason’s leather jacket.

Kon’s heart throbs in his chest. He wants to go over there and take Tim off Jason and cuddle him in his own arms and reassure him that he’s safe. But as he watches Tim shake in his brother’s arms anger boils inside him at the same time. Whatever happened when they weren’t here it was enough to shake Tim up. Conner’s vision turns slightly red and he takes a step towards Ra’s, completely prepared to pound him into the ground for hurting Tim. No one hurts Tim.

However before he could get a couple steps in a firm hand on his shoulder stops him in his tracks. He looks back to see Nightwing looking at him. The older man shakes his head, a silent command telling Conner that he shouldn’t engage. Kon clenches his fists and stays where he’s standing. Of course he could completely ignore Nightwing and just go straight for the kill, he’s powerful enough that the man won’t be able to stop him, but he doesn’t, he trusts Nightwing and decides to stay put.

“Why did you kidnap Tim Ra’s?” Nightwing asks firmly.

Ra’s doesn’t say anything for a while, always keeping his eyes on Tim’s still trembling form in the second Robin’s arms. As Conner was about to lose his patience with the man, he finally turns and looks in their direction.

An evil kind of smile appearing on his face, “Well I just wanted to see if the so-called magician I hired did the job right. Turns out he didn’t.”

“ _You_ got Tim de-aged!” Nightwing says in surprise, he then gets a hold of himself and growls out, “Why?”

Ra’s raises an eyebrow and turns his gaze back onto Tim, “He’s such a clever young man, I want him from the start, to raise him the way I see best suits him. Such talent should not be wasted, I can make him so much more than he already is. Such a pretty little thing, isn’t he?”

“Don’t you dare talk about him like that!” Conner exclaims, seeing red enter his vision once again. Opposite him he hears Red Hood growl and sees his arm squeeze Tim a little tighter, he turns his position around too try and hide Tim form the old man’s view. Next to him Robin lets out a growl.

“You’ll never have him Ra’s.”

“That’s what you think.”

Conner feels Nightwing step up next to him. He sees the man reach behind and brings out his escrima sticks, twirling them in his hands he says, “Red Hood, Superboy, you guys go on ahead and get Tim to the plane. Robin and I will deal with him.”

Conner sees Red hood stand stiffly for a few moments, he was sure that he was going to protest but in the end he lowers his gun and starts to slowly back away. He keeps his eyes trained on the old man the entire time until he gets to the entrance of the room. “Let’s go Superboy.”

For a moment Kon stands there torn. He wants to stay and fight Ra’s, to let his anger out on the man who kidnapped his boyfriend but on the other hand he wants to go with Red Hood so he can be with Tim once again. A hand gently shoves him towards the room’s entrance, decision made he heads towards Hood and leads the way out of the room with the other man following closely behind.

It takes them nearly 15 minutes to reach the plane, their journey often interrupted by a hoard of ninja attacking them. Working together, he and Jason make it through and enter the plane. They radio through to the others to let them know. Nightwing replies back telling them to start the plane up as their on their way back. Hood goes over and sits in the pilot’s seat and uses one hand to flip and press buttons to start the plane up, with the other hand he holds Tim closely to his chest.

Tim has yet to say anything to them. He was still slightly trembling in his brother’s hold and his hands are still tightly clutching Jason’s jacket like it’s a lifeline.

When the plane is all ready to go Jason leans back in the seat and looks down at Tim, “Jesus Timbo, why are you still shaking? What did he do to you?”

The only thing that Tim does is whimper and hides his face in Jason’s neck. Kon feels his heart throb once again. It hurts seeing Tim like that. He wants to go over there and coddle him but with the way he’s grasping onto Jason he thinks it’s best just to leave him be at the moment. Instead he offer’s advice, “Pet his head.”

Jason turns to him, that damn helmet still hiding his facial expression, “What?”

“Pet his head.” Kon repeats, “Tim really likes it when you run your fingers through his hair or give him a head massage.”

Jason carries on looking at him for a moment before turning back to Tim and doing what Kon suggested.

5 minutes later Nightwing and Robin appear on the plane with the urgent demand of them to get going. Once in the air and away from the place they all breathe a little easier.

Nightwing walks up to Jason who was still in the pilot’s seat with Tim still in his lap. “How is he?”

“Asleep.” Hood replies bluntly, he then turns his head up at the older man as if glaring at him, “And it’s going to stay that way until we’re back at the cave.”

Nightwing puts his hands up in surrender with a smile, “Alright alright. But look at how cute he is! He’s so tiny!” That’s when he turns sharply on Conner, “I’m still not happy with you.”

Conner takes a step back away from the first Robin, “It was all Tim. I knew we should have contacted you straight away, but he was the one that didn’t want you guys involved.” Conner immediately defends himself.

Nightwing wasn’t impressed with his answer, “It doesn’t matter. You should have called us.”

“Hey, I was looking after him just fine by myself.”

“And then, you moronic imbecile, allowed my grandfather to kidnapped him. You’re just as pathetic as Drake is, if not more.”

“Damian!”

“Demon’s right though Goldie.” Jason comments.

“I am not a demon!”

“Keep telling yourself that brat.”

Kon blinks a few times trying to wrap his head around on what just happened. The bats are crazy. Absolutely insane. He watches from the side as Dick tries to defuse an angry Damian. A few seconds later the youngest bird storms past him and disappears at the back of the plane.

Nightwing sighs and looks at Kon with a sympathetic smile, “We know it wasn’t your fault that Tim got taken. Ra’s is complicated to deal with and for whatever reason he’s obsessed with Tim. Turning him into a toddler is definitely taking it to the next level however.”

They both look over too find Tim still asleep on Jason’s lap, one of the man’s hands still running lightly over his skull.

“Is he going to come after Tim again?” Kon asks him worriedly.

“No idea, all we can do is keep him safe until he’s back to normal.” The man answers with a shrug.

“Maybe we ought to get Zatanna to turn him back after all. If Ra’s is after him then it’s best that Tim was in his own body where he can protect himself rather than him in a toddler’s body where he can’t do anything.” Kon says, mostly thinking out loud.

“Wait what?”

Kon looks up to see the man looking at him with surprise, “Well when it first happened I called Zatanna to come and make sure Tim was okay. She said the spell was weak and would only last about a month. Even though she could, she decided to not turn him back into an adult because this was an opportunity for him to rest.”

Dick turns away from him mumbling something about being left in the dark and how that wasn’t fair.

“Well I vote we don’t turn him back.” Jason speaks up from his seat. “The kid does need a break and we’re _all_ capable of making sure he stays safe.”

“I second that.”

Kon raises an eyebrow at them both, “Well in that case expect the temper tantrum that will follow when he hears what you guys decided.”

“So he still has his own mind then? It’s just his body that’s been regressed?” Dick asks him, once again watching the toddler sleep in the second eldest arms.

Kon nods, “Yeah, his mind is still the same, even his speech is the same, it’s just his body.”

“You know something, this is going to be really interesting to explain to Bruce when he gets back from being in Japan.” Jason says.

Dick snorts, “I’ll deal with that when the time comes to it. After the initial shock and then the anger, I bet he’ll be happy to see Tim as a toddler. He’s so cute that even the Dark Knight won’t be able to refuse him.”

“Yeah, have fun with that Goldie.”

After that the three of them fall into silence. Kon sits himself on the floor and watches Tim sleep in Jason’s arms. His hands are still holding onto the man’s jacket though not as tightly as before as they’ve relaxed in sleep, his breaths are coming out in slow regular intervals and his heart is beating at a slow rate.

He guesses today was a close one, he’s lucky that the bats knew where to look and go because who knows what else could have happened to Tim if they were any longer. He shivers, yeah, it’s best to not think about that. They had gotten him back and that’s all that matters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And of course I couldn't keep the bats out of this story for long. Though originally I had planned a different way for them to be introduced into the story but this way happened and I'm okay with that. 
> 
> Hope you all enjoyed it and stay tuned for the next update!


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Once getting back to the cave, they settle down for the night and some things get spoken about.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again I apologise for the long wait for this, but here it is, please enjoy. 
> 
> Warning! Talk about paedophilia within this chapter, it's more detailed in this chapter than the last one. 
> 
> For now I am keeping the story at general rating because as far as I have planned it's only these last two chapters that contain more delicate themes, if these themes appear in later chapters then I will change it, but for now it's staying as general.

Kon was woken up by someone shaking his shoulder, “Kon, Conner. Come on, wake up.”

He lets out a moan and swats away the hand on his shoulder, “I’m awake.” Kon opens his eyes and looks around, he’s still in the batplane on the floor but everything has now been turned off and the pilots seat is empty. He looks up to find Nightwing standing over him, a smile playing on his face.

“We’re home. If you want to, you can crash here for a few hours to catch up on some clearly needed rest.”

Kon gets up and stretches, sitting on the floor for who knows how long is not comfortable in the slightest. “I think I might take you up on that offer, you said Batman was out of town, right?”

“Yeah, he’ll be away for another 3 days so you’re all good for now.”

The two of them start walking out of the plane together and into the Batcave. They walk into the main area where they find Damian sat at the computer, now dressed in civvies and Jason pacing around with a sleeping Tim in his arms.

Apparently, their arrival was perfect timing because in Jason’s arms Tim was starting to stir. Jason stops his pacing and looks down at the toddler, “Come on Timbo, wakey wakey. Time to rise and shine.”

Conner and Dick walk over to Jason and watch as Tim blinks his eyes open and looks around. After noticing that he was in Jason’s arms Tim starts to squirm around and getting the message Jason crouches down and places him on the floor, he steadies Tim when he slightly wobbles.

Tim scans his surroundings once again, this time he spots Kon. Kon braces himself as the toddler storms up to him and then proceeds to kick him in the shin. “Tim!” He yelps and then steps away from him, “What the hell?”

“What the hell? _What the hell?_ Are being fucking serious Kon?” Tim shouts up at him, despite only being around 3ft high with a high-pitched voice Tim was coming off as pretty intimidating.

“Uh…” Kon lets out intelligibly as he looks down at the furious toddler. At the same time he tries to ignore Jason’s snickering in the background and Dick’s cooing at how adorable Tim is when he’s angry.

Tim glares up at him, “I told you not to call them and yet you did! Why?”

Kon feels sudden anger flare up inside of him at Tim’s words, “Why? I’ll tell you why, it’s because you got kidnapped by fricken Ra’s al Ghul! I called them because I didn’t know what to do. Talia threatened to harm you if I got close to the plane and I had no other way of tracking you, I went to the bats because they have dealt with that psychopath before!” He argues back.

Before Tim could reply Dick was stepping in between them, he puts a hand on Kon’s shoulder and pushes him back slightly, “Alright, lets calm down here.” He addresses both of them, “Tim, he was just doing what he thought was right and he was right in calling us. Something you should have done at the start. And Kon, you need to calm down, getting frustrated isn’t going to help the situation.”

Dicks looks between them both, daring one of them to argue against him. Neither of them speak up and this causes Dick to smile sweetly, “Good. I’m going to go get changed and then I we’re _all_ having a movie night.”

No one says anything as Dick leaves to go and get changed, though once he’s out of sight Jason starts walking towards where the vehicles are stored, “Well you guys have fun with that. I’m out.”

“No one is leaving!” Dick’s voice comes from within the cave.

Kon can’t help but snicker at the groan Jason gives. The man then changes his direction and heads for the changing rooms. Kon looks around to find that Damian was also no longer at the chair, he must have disappeared early on after growing bored or whatever.

Kon glances at Tim to find him already looking up at him. Sighing Kon crouches down to Tim’s level and makes eye contact, “I’m sorry. I know you didn’t want the bats in on this, but Tim, I didn’t have any other options.”

“Kon it’s okay. It wasn’t fair to shout at you like I did. I know you did what you thought was best.” Tim says, he walks up to Kon and wraps his small arms around Kon’s neck in a hug.

Kon smiles and wraps one arm around him, placing his other arm at Tim’s legs he lifts him up. He hears Tim sigh happily and then Kon feels him relax in his hold. They hug for a few minutes and as much as Kon is enjoying it he knows that other matters need attending too. He bends down and puts Tim back on the floor, when Tim looks up at him with a pout Kon sends him a small smile.

“Tim, what happened with Ra’s?” He asks gently. Kon knows that this is clearly a sensitive topic and he’s going to have to go about this gently in order to get his de-aged boyfriend to open up about it.

Tim’s pout turns into a glare and Kon can see, even in toddler form, that Tim is going defensive. His body stiffens up, his fists clench at his sides and he looks away from Kon. Kon reaches out and runs his hand lightly over Tim’s cheek and then he cups Tim’s face, “Tim please. I know something had happened when you were with him. You can talk to me.”

“Nothing happened.” Came the quiet answer.

Kon sighs, “Only if Tim. Look something happened because you were clinging to Jason like a life line when we were getting you out of there. Then you didn’t even protest when you were in his arms on the plane on the way back. What happened?”

When Tim doesn’t say anything Kon can feel his worry spike up. Using his hand on Tim’s face he gently pulls at Tim’s face so the toddler was looking at him, “Tim, did he touch you?”

When Tim doesn’t immediately respond Kon feels a wave of conflicting emotions hit him. Anger, worry, sadness, guilt. Overall it makes him feel sick. God, did Ra’s really… Kon was supposed to protect him, he was supposed to protect Tim at all costs and he let Tim get kidnapped by a fucking paedophile. Tim trusted him and this was the result.

Feeling overwhelmed with emotion Kon can’t help the tears that form in his eyes. He was awful, god, how could he let something like this happen…

“Conner!”

Kon snaps his focus back on Tim who was looking at him with a small frown. Normally Kon would find that frown on his boyfriend’s de-aged face funny, but he didn’t have it in him to laugh.

Tim walks comes close to him and places both of his hands on Kon’s cheeks and gets his attention, “Conner, listen to me. I promise you it wasn’t like that. He didn’t… He didn’t touch me like that Kon, I promise.”

“How do I know you’re not lying to me?” He chokes out. That’s the one thing he hates about Tim, his ability to easily lie. Granted that Kon now has gotten pretty good at knowing when Tim was lying, but right now he’s a little bit emotionally compromised so it’s hard to tell.

“I swear on my life, that he didn’t touch me like that Kon.”

“But he _did_ touch you, didn’t he?”

Tim looks away from him and looks down at the ground, “Yes. But it wasn’t like that.”

“Then tell me what it was like Tim! Whatever way he touched you wasn’t right!” Kon shouts at him.

When Tim swipes at his eyes, Kon notices the tears. Upon feeling like the worst person ever he now feels even worse. Trying to get a grip on his own emotions, Kon sits down on the floor and pulls Tim into his chest and holds him. He feels his own tears fall down his face as Tim breaks out into sobs.

He not sure how long they spend on the floor, but Kon’s own tears has stopped and Tim’s sobs have died to where he was now just sniffing. Taking a few deep breaths Kon gets a hold of himself and tugs Tim away from him just enough so he can see his face. Swallowing a lump in his throat, Conner asks, “What happened Tim?”

“It, wasn’t like that. I promise Kon, it wasn’t like that. His hands were long and cold, he just – he kept running them over my arms and legs. He kept whispering the things he wanted me to do for him, the things he had, has, planned.” Kon watches tears fall down his face as he talks. “And I couldn’t do anything to get him to stop! Damn this cursed body, I felt so helpless!”

Kon pulls Tim back into him again and runs a hand up and down his back trying to offer what comfort he could, hoping his hands own hands take away the reminder of what Ra’s had done to him.

“And when you guys came, Jason immediately snatched me away from Ra’s and held me. His hands just felt so right compared to his, he offered that body heat which just screamed safety and I couldn’t help but coil into it.”

“But he didn’t touch you like that?” Kon asks again, needing that confirmation.

Tim shakes his head, “No. I just freaked out because it just felt so wrong and I couldn’t do anything to stop him.”

Now Conner is the one shaking his head, “No, I’m the one who should be apologizing to you. I’m so, so, so, sorry that he even had the opportunity to do that to you Tim.”

Tim opens his mouth to say something but then he closes it again, apparently deciding that arguing wasn’t worth the effort. Kon couldn’t help but smile at that. He sighs and stands up as his legs have grown numb from being sat on the floor, he reaches down to pick Tim up before heading for the stairs.

“Why don’t we get you cleaned up?” Conner suggests as he makes it to the top of the stair way.

Tim snuggles into him, “As long as the others stay away then sure.”

* * *

A couple hours later Kon was carrying a clean Tim into the media room where his brother’s were waiting. As soon as Kon enters the room he was pounced on by Dick and Tim was snatched from his grip. Tim lets out a squeak as Dick crushes him to his chest, “You’re so cute Timmy!” Dick squeals out as he hugs him. Then over the top of Tim’s head Dick glares at him, “I can’t believe you kept this little precious thing away from us! How could you?”

Kon stares at Dick, “Uh… sorry?”

Dick doesn’t say anything else to him as he spins around and takes himself and Tim to one of the sofas. Kon watches as Dick manhandles Tim around so they’re both comfy under the piles of blankets that cover the sofa. Dick was leaning against the back with one arm around Tim who was sat on his lap pressed against the man’s chest.

Kon watches them for a moment before making a move to go over and sit in the free space next to them. Damian was curled up in the love seat just to the right of the sofa Dick was on, he had a sketch pad in his lap and a pencil set next to him. Kon notices that Damian was glaring at the display Dick and Tim was making clearly not liking it, but to Conner’s surprise the teen doesn’t say anything against it.

“Clone, now that you’re here, give me a hand with the snacks.” Jason calls out to him.

Stopping short of the sofa Kon turns around to see Jason standing in the doorway looking at him, “Uh, yeah, okay.”

Conner silently follows Jason through the Manor until they were in the kitchen. On top of the counters is a wide variety in food, things ranging from sandwiches, pizza slices, doughnuts, cakes and even a salad. They’re not planning on eating all that right? Kon likes his food and is a sucker for eating large portions but this still seems a little excessive.

As if reading his mind Jason comments, “Whatever we don’t eat will get put in the fridge and save it for another day.”

“Right.” Kon moves over to the counter and picks up the plate of sandwiches and the pizza slices. He goes to make his exit but Jason is speaking up again.

“How is he?”

Kon stops in his movements and places the plates down, knowing what the man meant he sighs, “Not great, but not bad either.” The food is now starting to look a lot less appealing as he starts to feel sick in his stomach at the memory of him and Tim in the cave.

“Did he tell you what happened?”

Kon hesitates before answering. Would Tim want his brother’s to know? He didn’t say anything about not telling them what had happened but then again, he hadn’t exactly given him the all clear to tell them. “Yeah, he did.” He decides to say, he looks up at Jason before looking away again, “Ra’s touched him Jason. Not like that thankfully but apparently, he was running his hands up and down his legs and arms and whispering things into his ear. Jason I -”

Kon stops talking as he’s unable to continue with that thought as all the guilt hits him once again. A heavy hand appears on his shoulder and he looks up to see Jason looking at him with what looks like sympathy and anger, though for Conner it’s hard to tell.

“Look. It isn’t your fault. Tim doesn’t blame you, I don’t blame you neither does any body else. Now get your head out of your ass and start smiling. A sulking Kryptonian isn’t fun to be dealing with. Just know, that when I next see Ra’s I’m going to put a fucking bullet through his head.”

Kon can’t help but snort at his words. He doesn’t say anything as he picks up the plates once again and exits the room. They transfer all the snacks from the kitchen to the media room in two trips each. Once all the snacks and drinks are there they all settle down and begin the first movie.

Kon doesn’t really pay any attention to it at first. He’s too busy watching Tim. By half way through the first film Tim was out cold on Dick’s lap. He watched as Dick absently ran his hand through Tim’s hair and as Tim shuffled closer to Dick’s body.

Today had been a close one and now Kon is determined to not let anything like this happen again, but now that the bats know they’d be able to help prevent Ra’s from taking Tim. Kon reaches out to Tim using his TTK, as he just wants to feel Tim and feel him breathing. Dick must feel it too, because he turns his attention away from the screen to send a knowing smile at Kon before turning back to it. Knowing that Tim is safe and breathing next to him, Kon let’s himself get dragged into the story line of the movie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was a little darker than I had expected it to be but I promise that the next chapter is more light and humorous. Either way I hope you enjoyed it, again I apologise for the super long wait for this chapter. Thank you everyone for all the kudos and comments it means a lot to know that people like this story.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A day trip gets organised

At first, he thought he had imagined it. His mind was just waking up from sleep and it was taking a lot longer than usual, but then he heard it again. A whimpering sound. Clearing the cobwebs away from his mind Kon looks around to find that it’s bright in the media room as Gotham’s rare sun is shining through the windows. To his surprise he finds both Jason and Damian still asleep in the room with him. Damian was still in the love seat with a blanket tucked around him and Jason was half hanging off the sofa he had to himself. There was still a movie playing on the TV and empty snacks and drink bottles lay around.

He looks to his right to find it empty. Neither Dick or Tim were in the media room. He looks up towards the room’s entrance when he hears a soft shushing noise. Frowning, Kon gets to his feet and stretches, sleeping on the couch isn’t the wisest choice, and then heads for the door. He tunes in his super hearing to find out where it’s coming from.

“Shhh… you’re okay Timmy. He’s not here, you’re safe.”

Kon picks up his walking pace and seconds later finds himself in the kitchen. He silently watches as Dick paces around lightly bouncing Tim in his arms. Tim has his arms wrapped around Dick’s neck and his face buried into his brother’s neck. Kon can see his shoulders shaking and can hear the muffled whimpers coming from him. Dick is bouncing lightly with every step he takes, he’s got one arm wrapped around Tim tightly and the other rubbing Tim’s back.

Kon’s heart breaks. Everything he had been feeling the night before hits him again. Tim’s clearly had a nightmare and Kon can guarantee he knows what it was about. If he hadn’t let Tim get taken this wouldn’t have happened.

His self-loathing doesn’t last for long because Dick spots him standing in the doorway. They make eye contact and Dick gives him a small smile.

Kon doesn’t have it in him to smile back, instead he walks over to the older man and gently places a hand on the back of Tim’s head to find his hair damp with sweat. He doesn’t move away it however. “How is he?” He asks.

Tim makes another noise as Kon touches his head but other than that he doesn’t really acknowledge him.

“He’s okay. Just a nightmare. I’m guessing that being in a toddlers body isn’t helping, it must be messing with his emotions.” Dick says.

“I bet.” Conner agrees.

There’s a sniffle from Tim, “It’s pissing me off.” He mumbles into Dick’s neck.

That causes Kon to crack a smile and Dick lets out a laugh, “I’m sure it is kid. Look three more weeks then you’ll be back to your normal over caffeinated, sleep deprived self again.”

“I could be back to normal now if you turn me back.”

“We’re sticking to this Baby Bird. It’ll be fine now that us bats know the situation, we’ll help Kon keep you safe.”

Tim lets out a whine and Kon moves his hand from Tim’s head to brush a finger over Tim’s cheek, “If we’re doing this, I’ll need to go grab his clothes from our apartment in Metropolis.” He tells Dick.

At the contact Tim finally turns and looks at Kon. Red rimmed blue eyes peer up at him, “I don’t blame you Kon.” He says quietly.

Kon doesn’t say anything, instead he reaches out and cups Tim’s tiny face in his hands and gives him a light kiss on the forehead. He pulls back and looks at Dick, “What’s the plan for today? Also, what time even is it?”

Dick starts to rock Tim in his arms, as if it’s a subconscious thing to do, “Um I don’t know. We could go out?”

Kon’s heart quickens at the thought of going outside with Tim like this, but before he could protest Dick cuts him off, “I know what you’re going to say and don’t worry. I was thinking about dragging us all out to Disney World. It’s just gone 9 in the morning.”

“Disney World? Really?” Kon questions, because really?

Dick simply beams at him, “Why not? It’ll be fun. We can head out there today, spend a night in the hotel, spend all day there tomorrow and come back tomorrow evening.”

Tim shifts in his arms and pulls away to look at Dick in the face, “You’re joking right,” there was a pause and Dick’s face says it all, Tim sighs, “Of course you’re not.”

Dick reaches up and ruffles Tim’s hair. Tim sniffs and crosses his arms across his chest and then pouts.

“Aw Timmy!” Dick coos at him.

“I’m done with you.” Tim states, pouting at his eldest brother. He then turns and looks at Kon. In a silent demand he raises his arms and makes a grabby motion at him. Kon complies, he steps forward and takes Tim out of Dick’s arms and places him on his hip.

Kon frowns as Tim settles into him, he’s feeling quite damp. Must be where he was sweating. Kon starts to bob lightly where he’s standing, “So, Disney World?”

Dick beams at him, “Yep!”

Next to Kon’s neck Tim mumbles something, Dick looks at him, “What was that Timmy?”

Tim raises his head, the pout was still on his face, “I said, what about patrol? We need people here for that.”

Dick’s smile falters, he clearly hadn’t thought about that, he then shrugs and smiles again, “I’m sure one night wouldn’t hurt.”

Silence falls between them, Dick’s now wearing a thinking cap, clearly trying to work out how to get around being away for one night but still having someone in Gotham to patrol. Kon simply focuses on the small body in his arms, Tim’s breathing has evened out from where he’s entered a light slumber and his hands are clenching some of his shirt.

“I stay…”

“Jesus!” The unexpected voice brings Kon out of his thoughts and makes him jump. He spins around to find Cassandra standing just behind him, “When the hell did you get there?” He asks trying to calm his pounding heart. Stupid bats, stupid sneaking up on people in their ninja ways. Most of time he can tell when Tim sneaks up on him, he’s had years of practice, but the other bats, especially Cassandra, they still catch him off guard.

A small smile plays on her face and Kon sees her turn her head as she spots Tim in his arms, somehow still asleep. She reaches out and runs a finger over Tim’s cheek. Pulling back she turns to face Dick, “I stay with Steph, need to catch who turned little brother more little.”

Dick raises an eyebrow, “You know where he is?”

“Yes. Tracking him for days, capture him tonight.”

“Do you need us there? We can stay and help you.”

She shakes her head, “Go, we can handle it.”

Dick looks conflicted, “You sure? Because-”

She cuts him off, “Go.”

At that point Kon debates on whether to put Cassandra on top for the scariest Bat instead of Dick, because that piercing looks she’s giving the eldest right now is pretty terrifying. Dick only smiles and puts his hands up in a surrendering gesture, “Okay, okay. Just be sure to keep contact with us, please.”

She smiles at him and nods her head, she turns back to Kon and Tim and once again runs her finger lightly over Tim’s lax face, “Cute.”

Kon grins at her, “He is, isn’t he?”

She smiles up at him before placing a kiss to Tim’s head. With that she leaves the two men and the toddler alone in the kitchen once again. Kon spins around to face Dick, “That answer your patrol question?”

“That it does.” The man states, “So, if you head back to your apartment in Metropolis and pick up some clothes and come back here we all can then head out. While you’re gone I’ll book rooms for us to stay in and hopefully it’ll all be sorted by the time you get back.”

Kon goes to speak but he’s interrupted by a different voice, “You’re doing what now?” Both Kon and Dick look over to find Jason traipsing into the kitchen and heading straight over to the coffee machine. He’s currently got a bad case of bed hair and his clothes are creased to hell. At the sight it’s hard to remember that this is in fact a crime lord who has killed many, _many_ , people.

Unfazed by the scene Dick throws his hands up in the air, “We’re _all_ going Disney World!”

Jason stops what he’s doing and slowly turns around to face Dick, “Come again?”

“We’re going to Disney World!” The man repeats.

Jason turns and gives Kon a look, “Did you agree to this?”

Kon opts for staying quiet, he doesn’t want to start anything between them. Jason takes his silence as his answer and proceeds to roll his eyes, he goes back to the coffee and brings out a mug from the cupboard above him, “Well if you’re forcing me to go, I’m inviting Roy. I know that Lian’s been wanting to go Disney World for a while.”

If anything Dick smiles brightens, “Of course.”

That’s when Kon gets an idea, “Can I invite Jon, he’s also been wanting to go.”

Dick enthusiastically nods, “Of course, so while you guys do that I’m going to go and book the rooms!”    

Dick skips out the room with grace and Kon shares a look with Jason, _did that just happen?_ The other man just shakes his head and lets it go. As Jason pours the coffee into the mug the smell hits Kon and by some coincidence Tim stirs in his arms and begins to wake up, “Is that coffee?”

Kon rolls his eyes, “Yes, it is coffee and you’re not getting any of it.” Tim shifts in his arms and looks up at him with big wide eyes and a pout forming on his face. Kon raises an eyebrow at him, “Are you seriously doing the puppy dog eyes on me? You aren’t getting any.”

“Meanie.”

“I’m not giving a four-year-old coffee Tim. Now, I’ve gotta go to metropolis to get us both some more clothes, do you want to come or do you want to stay here?”

Tim looks at him before looking over his shoulder towards his brother, “If I stay will you give me coffee?”

Jason snorts, “Nice try Timbo but no chance, I agree with the clone with not giving four-year-olds coffee.”

Tim pouts before sticking his tongue out at him, Jason frowns before doing the same. Kon just looks at him, “Really?”

Jason cocks an eyebrow at him, “He did it first.”

“He’s currently in a child’s body, he’s going to be childish. What’s your excuse?”

The man shrugs, “Well I didn’t have much of a childhood, growing up on the streets and all, I kinda had to grow up fast.”

Kon blinks at him before looking away unsure on how to answer that. He peers down at Tim, “Well?”

“I’ll go with you.”

Kon smiles, “Okay then. First we’ll eat some breakfast then we’ll head out.”

* * *

After eating a fantastic breakfast at the courtesy of Jason, Kon heads back to Metropolis with Tim in his arms. He flies above the clouds to try and avoid anyone from seeing him. Tim once again has fallen asleep in his arms and was out cold with his face tucked in between Kon’s neck and shoulder. Kon takes it easy for the flight, not going too fast just so he doesn’t startle Tim.

He arrives at the apartment and climbs in through the window. He tries to ignore the uneasy feeling in his stomach as he enters the living room. Here he had let Talia snatch Tim away from him and that allowed Ra’s to be near him. Kon takes a deep breath and pulls himself together, _it’s not going to happen again. Dick and the others will make sure of that._

The first thing he does is places Tim down on the bed in the bedroom. The second thing he does is goes to the bathroom and starts to fill up the bath with water, Tim was covered in sweat when he first woke so Kon needs to clean him up, he figured he’d do it when they’re on their own rather in the Manor.

While waiting for the bath to fill he shoots Jon a message about joining them on the trip to Disney World for a day, he sends the details he knows over to his brother and instantly he gets messages full of excited emojis and gifs. Well, looks like Jon’s excited for the trip.

Once the bath had a reasonable amount of water in it Kon goes and collects Tim. At first Tim was groggy and was slow to wake up, but once he was placed in the water he seemed to come alive. After drying him and getting him into clean clothes Kon plonks him down in front of the TV with some snacks and then disappears to do his own routine of getting cleaned up.

By the time he was done he was tired. He flops down onto the couch next to Tim and rubs a hand over his face. Next to him Tim giggles, “Tired, are we?”

Kon sighs, “Dude, I never realised how tired I could get just from running around. Looking after you is hard.”

“Uh-huh. I bet.” Tim dead pans, or at least tries too, the bluntness of the sentence doesn’t work with his high-pitched voice.

Kon smirks and ruffles his hair, he gets a squawk in protest and tries shoving his hands away. Not having any of that, Kon lunges sideways and grabs Tim by the hips, he easily picks him up and places him on his lap and begins to tickle him. Tim instantly lets out a squeal and tries to squirm away from his hands but Kon doesn’t let him escape.

Kon stops the tickle torture once Tim is looking like a tomato and is unable to catch his breath with a bright grin stretched over his face. “I… hate… you… you ass…hole.” Tim gets out in between lingering giggle fits.

“Language.” Kon reminds him. Getting off the couch Kon stretches, “I gotta go and pack for us for this trip.”

Tim hops off the couch, well more likes slides off it, and looks up at Kon, “I’ll help.”

“Tim-”

Tim stamps his foot on the ground, “I’m helping Kon. I can be useful still. Stop treating me like I’m helpless.”

“Sorry, my bad. Come on then.” Kon leads the way into their bedroom.

Between the both of them, they get packed pretty quick. They only pack the essentials and even after that there’s still room left in the bag. It’s two outfits each (a spare because you never know what will happen), Tim’s pyjama’s, underwear for both of them, socks, and some toiletries.  After triple checking everything Kon’s pretty happy with what they have, he bets if Tim was his normal self they’ll have thrice as much because Tim would drag his suit and spare gear along for a just in case situation.

Once they were ready to go Kon slings the bag over his back and picks up Tim, flying out of the apartment he makes sure it’s all locked up before taking off high in the sky and towards Gotham once again.

Kon takes his time in traveling back to Gotham. He’s enjoying the fresh air and the warmth of the sun hitting his back. In his arms, Tim is quiet and is observing the passing world below them.

By the time he gets to Wayne Manor it’s nearing early evening. He lands at the front door and makes his way inside. From inside Kon makes out loud voices coming from the direction of the kitchen, putting Tim down on the floor he starts to head that way with Tim walking right next to him.

They get to the kitchen to find everyone stood around talking, there’s multiple bowls full of snacks spread around. Tim wonders into the kitchen and is immediately caught by Dick who swoops him up and cuddles him and Jason leans over to ruffle his hair.

Kon stands by the door and watches the scene, once again he’s hit with that domestic feeling. As if Kon and Tim had just turned up with their kid and they’ve gone racing ahead to meet their uncles. The scene makes him warm inside at the possibility of that happening in the future, that domestic family gathering and kids running around over the place. The more he thinks about it, the more he wants it.

“Kon!”

Kon’s brought out of his head by someone shouting his name. He goes to look for them but something collides with his waist and sends him backwards a few steps. Looking down he sees that his brother has his arms wrapped tightly around his waist. 

“Woah, easy there kid.” Kon says as he gets his balance. Normally Kon wouldn’t have even moved if someone collided with him, but as it was his own brother who is also half Kryptonian and nearly as strong as him, he couldn’t help but move.

“Thank you for the invite! I’m so excited!” Jon beams up at him.

Kon laughs and ruffles his hair, “No problem, figured you’d want to come. Did you fly hear on your own?”

Jon smiles at him before he rolls his eyes, “No, Dad flew with me until we reached Gotham, then he let me get here on my own. We were visiting the farm when you messaged me, so I brought the clothes I had with me. I’m so excited, can we go yet?”

Kon nods his head, he doesn’t blame Clark for flying with Jon to out here, it is quite the distance and you could easily get lost, he doesn’t think Jon quite knows the direction off by heart yet. “I have no idea what time we’re going yet kid, so just be patient alright.”

Jon sighs and lets go of him, “Alright.”

Kon watches Jon walk over to where Damian was sat at the table and as he sits next to him and starts to excitedly talk to him. Those two really baffle Kon, he has no idea how they get along. Jon was a ball of sunshine, he was hyper active, friendly and lovable, Damian however, was not. Well not as far as Kon could tell. Those two were polar opposites and yet they get along well. He guesses that’s like questioning Superman and Batman, how do they get along well? He shakes his head and dismisses the topic, sometimes it’s best just not to question things.

Kon walks over to where the older Bats where standing. Dick was holding Tim on his hip and was feeding him some crisp while Jason was watching and sipping a beer. Dick spots him coming over and sends him a smile, “I’ve booked the rooms, so that’s all sorted out. Now that you two are here, we’re now just waiting on Roy.”

“Okay, cool. How are we getting there?”

Dick’s smile turns into a knowing grin, “We’re sons of a billionaire, how else are we going to get there other than a private jet.”

Kon just looks at him and decides to not say anything, he should be used to the fact that these people are mega rich and can afford anything they want but sometimes it just doesn’t sink in. He’s not complaining because it can be useful but sometimes it’s just unreal, though he knows that they aren’t the stuck up rich kind, they’re always giving money to charity and helping out where they can.

A few minutes go by then there’s the sound of a door opening and closing followed by two voices simultaneously shouting, “We’re here!”

They all look towards the kitchen entrance as they can hear someone running towards them and the shout of, “Uncle Jay! Uncle Jay!” can be heard.

Kon looks over to find Jason brightening up at the sound of his name. He puts down his beer and crouches down just in time to swoop up a running child in his arms, “Gotcha!” He laughs out.

Lian squeals happily as Jason starts to swing her about. After a moment Jason stops and holds her upright, “How you doing munchkin?”

The girl giggles, “I’m not a munchkin! I’m a big girl!”

“Big? I’m not sure, are you?”

“Yes!”

“Alright, if you say so…”

Kon couldn’t help but smile at the interaction between Jason and Lian. It was cute. He glances over to find Dick wearing a fond smile as he watches them and Tim is also wearing a small smile. They all look over at the door however when another speaks up, “You know, thanks to you guys, I’ve had to put up with an excited and hyper six-year-old for the last few hours and now I’m shattered.”

Jason lets out a snort as he puts Lian down on the floor. Lian immediately runs up to Roy and starts sprouting off questions, “Daddy can we go now? I can’t wait! Please can we go!”

“Honey, what I have taught you about patience, we’ll be going when everyone is ready okay.”

Lian pouts, “Okay.” She heads back over to Jason and stretches out her arms in the ‘pick me up’ fashion. Jason once again puts down his beer and picks her up and settles her on his hip. Kon watches as she observes the place, her head going from person to person in curiosity. He sees her gaze linger longer on Jon and Damian over at the table and then as she sends a smile at Dick who waves at her, but what attracted her attention the most was Tim who was still in Dick’s arms.

She pats Jason to get his attention, “Uncle Jay, who is that?”

Jason finds her pointing at Tim, who was now watching them with narrowed eyes.  “That’s Tim. You’ve meet him a few times at Titan’s Tower, he’s currently the leader of the Titan’s.”

Lian frowns, not understanding, “But that Tim is a adult.”

“Yeah, but just recently he got hit with a magic spell which turned him small. Sometimes it’s like what Daddy and I fight, Tim just happened to get hit.”

Lian’s mouth shapes into an ‘o’ and she sends a smile at Tim, “Hi Tim!”

Kon watches as Tim sends her a small wave. Lian beams and turns back to Jason, “Can I play with him?”

“Uh,” Jason hesitates as he looks at Tim, who was now sending him a cute glare, before looking back at Lian, “Maybe later. Tim isn’t up for it right now.”

Lian looks disheartened, “Oh, okay.”

“Don’t worry he’ll play with you later okay.” Jason tells her.

She smiles and then relaxes against him, resting her head again his shoulder. Kon glances at Tim to see him now watching Lian with a thoughtful expression on his face, Kon can’t tell what he’s thinking at this current moment. Perhaps tomorrow he could try and get Tim to spend a few hours with Lian, it might do him some good.

“Grayson, now everyone has arrived can we leave?” Damian asks walking up to him.

Dick smiles, “Excited to get going are we little D?”

“Tt, as if I want to go and see people dressed up as cartoon characters. The sooner we get this over with the sooner Kent will stop talking about it.”

“Uh huh. Okay Dami, whatever you say.”

“Tt.”

“But I think we are ready to go, aren’t we?” Dick looks around and meets everyone’s eyes and in response they all nod in agreement.

Lian was the first to react. She instantly starts squirming in Jason’s arms to be put down and once on the floor she grabs the man’s hand and drags him out of the kitchen, “Come on Uncle Jay!”

Jon was next to follow while dragging Damian behind him and Roy trailed behind them. That leaves Kon, Tim and Dick left in the kitchen.

“Right Timmy, I’m going to put you down now because my arms are beginning to get numb and because I’m going to make sure everyone has everything and that no one has killed anyone.” Dick crouches down on the floor and places Tim down, he ruffles his hair before getting up and leaving.

Kon looks down at Tim, “Hey you okay? You’ve been quiet.”

Tim looks up at him and blinks a couple of times before answering, “Yeah I’m fine, just didn’t have a lot to say that’s all.”

“What do you think of Lian?” Kon asks.

“Lian? She’s fine, nice girl, Roy’s doing a good job of raising her.”

“She seems fond of Jason.”

“Yeah, she likes him. Believe it or not Jason is actually good with kids.”

“I can see that. Though I wouldn’t be surprised if he sets up a play date for you and her tomorrow, especially since she wanted to play with you today.” Kon won’t mention the fact that he’ll probably end up helping to arrange that.

Tim simply shrugs, “Guessed that myself.”

Kon starts heading for the door, “Come on lets go before Lian or Jon come hunting for us.”

The drive to the airport went by quickly and soon enough they were on the plane heading for Disney Land. That’s another good thing about being stinky rich, Kon thinks, there’s no hassle at the airport, simply go in get all their passports checked and then straight onto the private jet. No hassle with luggage or waiting around for a few hours until their flight, just straight in and straight on the plane.

Kon relaxes into one of the plush seats and peers around the plane to observe the others. Dick was lightly conversing with Roy. Jason had a lap full of a sleeping child, the excitement had finally worn out of Lian leaving her peacefully sleeping. Jon was passed out in another seat next to a very awake Damian. Tim was also passed out on the seat next to Kon, he was covered up with Jason’s jacket.

Kon sighs and looks out the window, not that there was much to see as it was now dark out, it had been another long day and he can feel it catching up on him. Knowing that they were fine and safe, that Tim was fine and safe he let’s himself start to drift off to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A much brighter chapter compared to the last two ones, hope you all enjoyed! This was a lot of fun to write and I hope that it all made sense as there are a lot more characters now involved.  
> Stay tuned for the next chapter!
> 
> Go check out my [tumblr](https://awhitehead17.tumblr.com/) if you want.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Four Bat's, Two Super's and Two Archer's take on Disney World.

Once they landed it was a blur from the airport to the hotel. Kon simply went with the flow and did everything that was asked of him (mainly hauling the luggage around) but a majority of the time he followed from behind while carrying Tim in his arms.

Once at the hotel Dick sorted everyone’s rooms out, he then proceeded to give out the key cards to each room. Roy and Lian were together in one room, Damian and Jon were sharing a family sized room with Dick and Jason (something that neither Damian or Jason were happy about) and finally him and Tim were together in another room.

They all then retreated to their rooms for the rest of the night with plans to meet at breakfast the following morning between 9 and 10. Kon walked with Tim in his arms to their designated room and opened it up and he certainly wasn’t expecting to find their room pirate theme when he opened the door. After staring at it for a moment he shrugs it off, it was Disney World after all.

Kon went through their nightly routine, first it was getting Tim ready for bed and then it was getting himself sorted, once that was done they both settled on the large bed in the middle of the room (there was a child’s bed next to the large bed but they both ignored it).

Soon enough Kon was rudely woken up by his alarm on his phone going off around 8 in the morning. Making a note of where Tim was (on the left side of the bed, sprawled out like a star fish) Kon carefully climbed out of bed and headed for the bathroom. Like most mornings Kon sorts himself out first, making use of the shower and doing his business and then getting dressed for the day. He sorts Tim’s outfit out before going over and waking up his de-aged boyfriend.

Tim groans at being disturbed but eventually he wakes up enough to keep his eyes open. Kon picks him and takes him to the bathroom and lets him do his business before he givers him a bath. It was when it came to dressing Tim that Tim decided to be awkward.

“No.”

“Tim…”

“I’m not wearing that.”

“Why not?”

Tim glares at him, “I am not wearing a superman t-shirt in front of my brother’s.”

Kon frowns and places a hand over his heart in mock hurt, “I can’t believe you’d insult me like that, I thought you liked wearing my symbol.”

“I like wearing _your_ shirts Kon, you know, red and black, not blue, red and yellow.”

“Whatever dude,” Kon says, he looks at their bag on the floor by the bed then back at Tim, “You’ve got two choices, it’s either Superman or Wonder Woman.”

Tim looks at him in disbelief, “I can’t believe you, didn’t you pack anything else?”

“Nope.” Kon grins.

Tim stares at him for a few moments before he sighs, “Fine. Wonder Woman it is.”

Kon carries on grinning as he gets the t-shirt from their bag. He can’t help but laugh when he sees the pout on Tim’s face once his head pops through the neck hole.

“Come on, we gotta go meet everyone.”

After locking their room Kon and Tim make their way through the hotel to where they were meeting the others. Getting there they find Roy, Lian and Jason already sat at a table. Both men had cups in their hands and Lian was stuffing her face with something that looked like pancakes.

As they reach the table Jason pulls out a chair for them, picking up Tim Kon sits on the chair and places the toddler on his lap. “Morning,” he greets them all.

“Morning Conner! Morning Tim!” Lian replies back excitedly. Kon smiles at her and Tim sends a small wave. Lian looks at Roy then at Jason, clearly expecting something from them. When she doesn’t get what she apparently wants she pouts at Roy, “Daddy, you are supposed to say good morning and you Uncle Jay!”

Roy smiles at her and ruffles her hair, “Of course, Morning Conner, Tim.”

Jason mumbles out a morning to them, he clearly still hasn’t woken up yet.

Seeing a menu on the table Kon grabs it and nudges Tim on his lap, “Hey you want anything to eat or drink?” Tim silently looks at the menu for a minute

Opposite them Lian blurts out, “Get the pancakes! They are really nice and they are shaped like Mickey Mouse!”

Tim looks over at her for a moment before looking back up at Kon, “I’ll get the pancakes Kon, please.”

Kon smiles and ruffles his hair, “Sure.” Getting up he places Tim on the seat and walks over to the counter, he orders the pancakes for Tim and a drink for himself. In quick time the drink came and then the food, three golden brown smiling Mickey Mouse faces.

He heads back to the table to find Tim was now sat on Jason’s lap and was trying to reaching for his drink, Jason just kept inching it further away from him every time he got closer to it. Smiling Kon places the pancakes down in front of Tim with the cutlery, he then takes his original seat and watches as Tim snacks on the pancakes.

Around 5 minutes later, the group of five turn to eight as Dick, Damian and Jon join them. Dick and Jon were wearing matching grins, both clearly excited for the day ahead and like normal, Damian was wearing his usual scowl.

The three of them found chairs and sat around the table with them, instantly the noise of their table escalated because of Jon, Dick and Lian all talking excitedly about what they want to do today. Eventually Dick disappeared from the table to order himself and Damian some breakfast, Kon gave Jon some money so he could go get his own food as well.

Tim was slowly working his way through the pancakes, he’s nearly finished his second one now. Kon leans over and tears a bit off the third pancake and puts it in his mouth, Lian was right, it was good. Tim looks up from his plate and frowns at Conner, in return Kon just laughs and ruffles his hair.

Half an hour later they’re all ready to get going. They pile plates up in the middle of the table and start to stand.

“Oh guys!” Dick exclaims, they all turn to him as he holds out a few bits of paper, “Take one of these, it’s a fast track ticket. It’ll get you on the rides a bit quicker and cuts out a lot of lining up.”

Everyone takes one and say their thanks, then as a group they begin to head out into Disney World. Fortunately for them it was good weather outside, sun was shining through a few clouds and there was a light breeze up with kept the overall temperature down.

Once they were through the parks entrance Kon had to actually grab Jon with his telekinesis to stop him from immediately running off into the growing crowd, “You stay here until we all know what’s happening okay.”

Jon turns to him and gives him an angry pout, “I’m not a baby.”

Kon gives him a look, “I know you’re not, but if something happens to you then I get the blame.”

Jon looks like he wants to argue but thankfully he doesn’t, instead he moves away from Kon and walks next to Damian while muttering under his breath how it’s unfair.

They gather in a group circle and Dick claps his hands which gets everyone’s attention, “Right, so I’m going to assume that people would like to go their own ways so I was thinking how about we meet again around 3 ish for lunch then we all can decide what to do from there. That sound good?” There was a mumble in agreement and Dick perks up, “Great! Then enjoy your day everyone!”

Lian was the first to react, she jumps at Jason and grabs his hand and starts tugging him in a random direction, “Come on Uncle Jay! I wanna go see the princesses!”

Kon watches with amusement as Jason lets Lian drag him off. Next to him Roy snorts, “If we come back wearing a crown, a dress and covered in glitter, don’t be surprised.” With that he starts to follow behind his daughter and best friend.

“Can I please go now Conner?”

Kon looks down to find Jon looking up at him with the puppy dog eye’s look. Letting out a sigh Kon says, “Sure kid, get going, but-” he reaches out and grabs his shoulder before he could run off “-you be careful, be safe, make sure you contact me if something is wrong.”

Jon rolls his eyes and pushes Kon’s hand off his shoulder, “You aren’t mom, Kon. Stop babying me.” Jon instantly turns away from him and goes over to Damian, before the current Robin could protest Jon was dragging him away from the group in the opposite direction to what Lian dragged Jason in.

That leaves three of them left. Dick crouches down in front of Tim and talks to him, “Hey Timmy, after lunch why don’t you and I go do something together? I promised Damian I’d spend the morning with him but after that why don’t we don’t we do something?”

Tim looks at him with his big blue orbs, then he smiles, “Sure.”

Dick grins at him, “Awesome!” Dick stands up and ruffles Tim’s hair which earns him a squawk in protest. “Now you guys go have fun and I’ll see you later.”

Both Kon and Tim watch him walk away, once he had disappeared in the crowd Kon looks down at Tim, “What do you want to do?”

Tim shrugs and looks up at him in question. Kon rolls his eyes, Tim was supposed to be the decisive one out of the two of them. He bends down and grabs Tim by the arm pits and hauls him onto his shoulders, Tim lets out a squeak at the sudden movement and then clings onto Kon’s head once he was placed on his board shoulders.

“Okay, why don’t we just walk around and see what catches our eyes.” Kon says walking in a random direction.

Tim tugs his hair to get his attention, “You know, you are totally the mom.”

Kon tilts his head to the side in the way that allows him to glance up at Tim perched on his shoulders, he knows exactly what Tim is referring to, “I am not the mom.”

“You totally are!”

“No I’m not.”

“The way you acted with Jon back there says differently.”

“That’s different altogether, because Jon is my brother and I wasn’t kidding when I said that I’d get the blame if something happened to the kid.”

There was a pause from Tim, it was as if he was thinking about what to say next. In the end he goes with, “You’re still the mom.”

Sighing Kon decides to let it go. That was a long time ago and apparently Tim still hasn’t let it go.

* * *

They walk, or well Kon walks, around for a while before they get somewhere and decide to go on it. They pass a lot of things that Kon would like to go on but with Tim’s current height, they’re restricted to what they can do. Once this was all over and Tim was back to normal, Kon decides that they’ll be coming here for a date one day, that way they can go on all the big rides together and enjoy the day without a magician fucking it up (well hopefully).

The first ride they decide to go on, or at least Kon decides to drag Tim onto, is the tea cups. When Kon first pointed it out Tim didn’t seem amused but Kon didn’t care, they had to go on something while they were here so this was a good starting point.

Kon heads over to the queue and places Tim down on the floor, Tim instantly plasters himself against Kon’s leg. Kon didn’t mind, it meant that he could keep Tim close to him, especially after what happened with Ra’s. The line for the tea cups wasn’t that long, so thankfully they won’t have to wait that long.

When it was their turn to have a go Kon leads Tim over to an empty tea cup and helps him get in and Kon climbs in afterwards. Once everyone else was settled in the ride starts up and cheery music plays in the background. At first it was slow, but Kon could instantly hear all the kids giggling and squealing from other tea cups and the occasional shout of “faster!”.

Once the ride starts picking up speed Kon leans into the middle and starts to turn the plate in the centre of the teacup, immediately their teacup started to spin twice as fast and beyond them the world blurred. Next to him he hears Tim yelp at the sudden speed but Kon keeps on spinning the teacup around, he lets out a laugh as Tim slams into his side and then clings onto Kon, it was hard to tell at that moment but did Tim just let out a giggle?

Kon lets the cup slow down so Tim (and himself) can get their bearings. Now he can fully concentrate, he can definitely say that Tim was giggling next to him. Kon grins. After a moment Kon starts to rotate the cup again, this time in the other direction. Tim’s giggles multiply as they spin around and Kon can’t help but laugh with him.

The ride was short and finished after a couple of minutes, but even as the ride slows down and comes to a stop Kon could help the few giggles that escape from himself and by the sounds of it Tim couldn’t help himself either. The music around them is replaced with Mickey Mouse’s voice instructing them to leave the teacups and head for the exit.

Kon gets out first and helps Tim out, as soon Tim was on the floor he was tumbling to the side and Kon grabs him to hold him up so he doesn’t fall over. Glancing around Kon sees that other parents seem to be in the same situation as he’s in. That domestic feeling hits Kon again, a quick image flashes in his mind that it was him and Tim keeping a hold of their own child to stop them from falling over because they were dizzy. Shaking those thoughts away Kon leads Tim to the exit and follows everyone else out. Once out in the open everyone disperses in their own directions.

Next to him Tim was still laughing, a quiet happy sound coming from him and it fills Kon with warmth. He looks down to the toddler, “Enjoy that Tim?” Tim looks up and _beams_ at him. It’s the happiest Kon thinks he has seen him since getting turned into a child. Bending down Kon swoops Tim up and places him on his once again, putting a bounce to his walk Kon heads in a random direction to once again see what they can find.

They go in and out of a variety of shops seeing what they can find, getting some snacks between them and a drink each. One shop they found was superhero based, now Kon could _not_ let this opportunity pass. In that shop he ended up buying a green lantern cap for Tim and a Wonder Woman plushie. He decides that he’ll have to come back later and grab some stuff, he would do it now but he doesn’t want to be carrying it around with him.

They leave the shops and carry on walking around for a while before something else catches their eyes. Walking through the entrance Kon places Tim on the floor, as he was on his shoulders again, and holds his hand, they follow the path leading around to find a boat at the end. As they reach it a group of people were just vacating it meaning they can walk straight on. Tim and Kon sit at the very back and several other people fill all of the seats in front of them. Once the boat was full of people it took off at a slow pace.

Having no idea what to expect Kon looks around and observes everything. The boat goes around a corner and opposite them there’s another entrance with a sign above it saying, ‘welcome to the happiest cruise that ever sailed’. Kon can’t help but cringe at that, it’s cheesy.

The boat passes through the entrance and they’re meet with bright colours and very cheerful music. Looking around Kon sees lots of audio-animatronics all dressed different, lots of them spinning around, dancing, singing and playing music instruments. It’s pretty over whelming and Kon just wonders about what on earth had he dragged him and Tim into.

The ride was long and slow, but as he watches all the too cheerful animatronics he can’t help but be reminded of something. He looks over at Tim to find him watching everything around him with disinterest. He leans over and pokes him to get his attention, when Tim glances up at him Kon leans in close and says, “Hey you know what this reminds me of, that time you and I faced that kid Hiro, The Toyman.” He keeps his voice low so the people in front can’t hear him.

Tim looks around before looking back at him, “Yeah I can kinda see that.”

“Dude, these things are creepy. I can’t help but expect these things to suddenly come alive and attack us.”

Tim gives him a look and Kon just knows that, even on tiny Tim’s face, that look is communicating _don’t be an idiot._ Kon rolls his eyes and straightens back up, he watches the animatronics with suspicion.

_“It’s a world of laughter, a world of tears, it’s a world of hopes and a world of fears. There’s so much that we share that it’s time we’re aware, it’s a small world after all”._

The ride continues for another five minutes and when the boat emerges back at the start Kon is more than ready to leave. He helps Tim out the other side of the boat and they proceed to work their way back out to the main park.

When they get outside Kon checks his phone to find that there’s a message from Dick with a location to where they’ll be meeting up for dinner. Kon looks at the time to find that they still have an hour until they have to meet the others.

To kill time they once again just walk around. There’s a few carnival type games around which they have a go on each, they pass a short puppet show on the way, and they pop into different shops to have a browse.

Outside one shop they were exiting there were a couple people dressed up a Mickey Mouse suit and a Minnie Mouse suit. They were surrounded by kids and families, the kids sometimes running up to them for a high five or a wave and then a photo. The one in the Mickey suit somehow spots Tim, who standing next to Kon, and sends him a wave. Tim reels behind Kon and hides behind his legs. Kon looks down and frowns at him, “Tim?”

Tim doesn’t say anything and carries on hiding behind his legs. Kon looks up to find the mouse still looking in his direction as well as a few other parents who were wearing amused smiles. In return Kon hopelessly shrugs at the mouse and gives him a smile trying to communicate, _‘he’s just shy and a kid after all…”_

The mouse turns away from him as another kid comes up to him, and Kon hopes that he doesn’t feel offended, then again, they must be used to it. Kon turns around and picks up Tim in his arms and carries him away from the crowd.

Once away Kon pops Tim back down on the floor and kneels in front of him, “Tim?”

“I’m fine.”

“What was that about?”

Tim shrugs, “I don’t trust people in suits like that.”

“You don’t trust a lot of people.”

“For good reasons.”

“I know that.”

Tim looks away from him before looking back again, “I just don’t like the fact that I have no idea _who_ is underneath that suit, that’s all.”

Kon nods, he understands that distrust, of course for him he could if he really wanted to look through the suit (he won’t because you know, privacy) but Tim doesn’t have that ability, it’s different for him.

He sends Tim a smile, “Okay, now come on, we can head to where we’re meeting the others.”

They follow a map that Kon had picked up and head for the café they were all meeting at. Kon keeps a hold of Tim’s hand as they make their way through the park. As they walk Kon observe other people with their families. Most were happy looking with a kid or kids running around all excited and talking at a speed that Bart would be proud of, on occasion he’ll see an upset child being told off by their parent for either running off or doing something naughty.

Looking at everyone else, then down at Tim who was contently holding his hand, it makes him want to come here again but next time with his own kids. He wants to see their face light up as they meet their favourite characters or get excited when their about to go on a ride, watch how their faces wear expressions of disbelief as giant puddings arrive for them to eat. Kon wants to experience this place with his own kids.

The tugging of his hand gets his attention, he looks down to find Tim staring up at him with those wide, sparkling eyes, “Yeah?”

Tim points with one of his tiny arms over to a place in front of them, “Is that me or is that Dick?”

Kon turns to see what Tim was on about. In front of them there happened to be a big parade going on, there was loud music coming from it, bright colours are everywhere and amongst them a variety of people are performing different things. Sure enough when Kon looks closely enough he can see a familiar face.

Dick was in that crowd amongst the acrobats, performing all kinds of flips and tricks. He was in a colourful and sparkly leotard and seemed to be having the time of his life. Tim and Kon watch him as he performs his routine and as he joins the others in performing.

The parade goes by them and Tim and Kon share a look with each other, “Well I don’t think Dick will be joining us for lunch then.” Kon comments watching the parade turn around a corner and disappearing from sight.

From where he was standing he sees Tim pout and then Kon remembers that Dick promised to spend some time with him after their late lunch. Kon feels the disappointment surrounding Tim. He bends down and picks him up, continuing to walk towards the café, Kon places Tim on his hip and hugs him tightly, he doesn’t say anything because he’s not sure on what to exactly say but he hopes his physical presence is enough to sooth him a little.

After a while they eventually find the café they were meeting the others at. They apparently were the first ones to arrive as they couldn’t see any of the others there yet, so they find themselves a large table and sit down and wait for the others to appear.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now I have 'it's a small world' stuck in my head because of this god dammit haha.
> 
> Anyway, I've decided to split this chapter into two bits, the first half of the day in this one then the next half of the day will be in the next chapter, so stay tuned for when I next update!


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Disney World part two.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How many people did I curse by getting a 'It's a Small World' stuck in their heads in that last chapter? I regret nothing, haha!
> 
> Anyway, sorry for the wait on this chapter, I've been a bit busy also I have like 5 other WIP's at the moment so I've kinda been splitting my time in between them. After this chapter it we move onto the main plot once again and thank you everyone for your patience, all your comments and kudos are amazing!
> 
> Enjoy the this chapter :D

Tim scribbles messily on the piece of paper in front of him. The café they were at offers free colouring sheets and crayons to kids and Kon being Kon decides to get some for Tim. Tim bets it was mainly just for himself because at the moment Kon looks like he’s having a lot more fun with the colouring than he is.

“You know you’re supposed to colour in the lines right Tim?” Conner comments to him when he looks up from his own paper.

Just to spite him Tim grabs another crayon and scribbles wildly over the paper. Once he was done he looks back up at Kon and gives him an innocent looking smile, “Whoops.”

Kon gives him a look, one that says _really?_ and in retaliation Tim sticks his tongue out at him and looks back at his bit of paper. They’ve been sat at the café for a good 10 minutes already and it’s another 5 before someone shows up.

“Conner!”

Both him and Kon turn around to the name call, they find Jon heading their way while dragging Damian behind him. Conner smiles at him once he reaches the table, “Hey kid, how’s your day been so far?”

“Look!” Jon shoves a Superman plushie in Kon’s face, “I won this!”

Kon shoves it out of his face, “Yeah? Did you cheat?”

Jon pouts at him, “No I did not! Damian, tell him I didn’t cheat.”

“Tt, despite what it looked like and what he is capable doing, Kent did not cheat.”

“Thank you, see Conner.” Jon says wearing a smug smile.

Kon smiles and shakes his head, “Whatever kid. What else you been up to?”

Jon’s normal excited grin appears back on his face and he enthusiastically tells Kon about his and Damian’s day. Tim was listening but he moves his attention away from the two supers when he feels a presence stand next to him. He looks up to find Damian looking at his ‘colouring’.

“Drake do you not know how to colour? You keep inside the lines, it is not that hard of a concept to grasp, but then again a simple-minded creature like you would find that hard to understand.” Damian says to him, voice full of disgust.

Tim narrows his eyes up at Damian, god he wishes he was his normal self again just so he can beat him. But no. He was stuck in this four-year-old body and they happen to be out somewhere that was full of random people, it would look and sound weird if a four-year-old started cursing at a teen and calling him all kinds of vulgar names.

Working to keep himself from saying anything Tim settles for glaring at Damian. Of course Damian is undeterred by his look, the teenager simply glares back and it suddenly becomes a glaring contest between them. Tim’s not willing to let the demon spawn beat him, Tim may not be able to fight back physically but at least he can glare to some extent.

He’s unsure how long they spend looking at each other but much to his annoyance Tim brakes eye contact first and that was only because someone jabbed his ribs. He couldn’t help the yelp that escaped his mouth and the sudden jerk of his body. He looks around to find Jason smirking evilly at him. “Jumpy there Timmy?”

“Don’t jab my ribs.” He pouts back at the man. Next to him Damian tuts and walks away, Tim watches him go and as he sits down next to Jon who was now sat on Kon’s other side. Jason also moves and takes a seat on Tim’s unoccupied side. Tim watches as Jason takes in his colouring, an eyebrow goes up on his face and his mouth opens to say something, however he seems to change his mind because he shakes his head and closes his mouth again.

“Come on daddy!”

Tim turns around to find Lian running towards their table. She stops every few feet to make sure that Roy was following behind her. Tim looks at Roy and does a double take, in his arms there’s a very big teddy bear. A huge fluffy brown bear with a red bow tie around his neck. Tim’s pretty sure that it was bigger than him in size and possibly even in weight.

Eventually they get to the table and Lian starts jumping up and down, “Look what we won! Look what we won!”

“Wow.” Kon says looking at the bear with wide eyes as Roy sits it at the table opposite him.

Next to him Jon gasps, “That’s huge! Where did you get it?”

Roy looks at him and smirks, “A shooting game. There was two targets, one side had a little crossbow and the other had a gun, so naturally….”

“Fair enough.” Kon comments still looking at the bear.

“Daddy, can I go play in the play area?” Lian asks looking hopeful from where she was tugging on his t-shirt.

Roy frowns at her before looking around, he finds the children’s soft play area over in the corner of the café and looks back at his daughter, “You can but after you’ve had something eat.”

Lian looks like she wants to argue but a stern look from Roy changes her mind, she nods, “Okay daddy.” She climbs up onto the seats next him and looks around the room with intense curiosity.

Roy leans forward and grabs a menu from the middle of the table and sets it out in front of him, Jon does the same with the second menu and opens it up for him and Damian to look at. He and Kon have already decided what they’ll be having, they decided on it while they waited for the others to arrive.

“Hey, where’s Goldie to?” Jason asks suddenly, he looks at Jon and Damian, “Wasn’t he with you brats?”

“Tim and I saw him in a performing in a parade on the way here, I have to admit I’m curious about how he got there.” Kon says, looking between Jason and his brother.

Jason lets out a snort, “Seriously? A performing in a parade? Typical.”

“Well about two hours ago the three of us bumped into some acrobats who were trying to perfect a move. Dick saw them and offered some help, he showed them how to do it and they offered him a place in the parade because they realised who he was.” Jon explains. “At first he said no because he was with us but then Damian told him to go because it was clear that he wanted to do it but I think that the real reason is so Dick would leave us alone to do whatever we wanted without an adult.”

Silence surrounds the table as they all look at Jon who blushes once he sees everyone looking at him.

“What? It’s true” He says defensively.

Conner frowns at him, “So you’ve spent the last two hours on your own?”

“We do not need a baby sitter clone, we are perfectly capable of looking after ourselves.” 

Kon rolls his eyes but lets the comment go. From there Tim ignores the small talk that’s going on around the table, instead he focuses on the paper in front of him while trying to ignore the hurt feeling inside of himself. Dick said that they’ll spend the afternoon together but now that he’s with the parade that’s obviously out of the window. It hurts to know that Dick had apparently forgot about his promise.

“Well I’m not waiting for him to show up, I’m hungry so I’m getting food.” Jason declares standing up from the table, “Join me or not, I don’t care.”

He starts to walk towards the counter where the orders are being taken, Roy gets up and follows him, once they get back Kon, Jon and Damian all get up and do their orders. When they return small talk takes over the table once again and is that way until the food arrives.

Half an hour later all the food they had ordered has now disappeared. Tim enjoyed his food, it was a child’s portion of fries and chicken nuggets in shape of Mickey Mouse. It wasn’t a big meal but it filled him up. What he didn’t enjoy was that Dick still hasn’t shown up and there was no signs of him showing up at all. Kon had tried to console him but Tim brushed him off, he doesn’t really want to hear it.

Tim’s brought out of his head when he hears Lian impatiently ask, “Daddy can I go now? Pleeeeeeaaaasssseeeee.”

Roy puts a thoughtful expression on and takes his time in answering, with every second that passes of him not answering Lian looks like she’s going to explode. After about 10 long seconds he finally nods, “Sure, go ahead, but be careful!”

“Yay!” She exclaims. She immediately starts to climb down from the table, however instead of heading for the children’s play area she runs around the table and grabs Tim’s t-shirt, “Come on Timmy, let’s go play!”

Tim almost falls off the seat he’s on because of her tugging and he has to steady himself by grabbing the table, he looks at her hopeful face and feels slightly guilty when he says, “Uh, I don’t really want to…”

Her face falls in disappointment, “What?”

Tim opens his mouth to say he doesn’t want to play but Jason speaks before he can, “He’s only joking, of course he wants to play!” That’s when hands appear under his arms and pick him up from the seat, they place him on the floor next to Lian, they also remove the cap that’s been sat on his all of this time, “Now you two go have fun okay, we’ll be here for when you want to come back out.”

Tim sends him a betrayed looked while Lian sends him a bright grin, “Thank you Uncle Jay, let’s go Timmy!”

She grabs his hand and drags him towards the play area when they get there Lian lets him go and starts climbing up the foam steps, “Come on! I think the slide is this way!”

Tim watches her disappear up the stairs, he looks back at the table where everyone is to find most of them staring at him with different kinds of smiles on their faces. Jason was wearing an evil smirk and was even holding up his phone with the camera faced at him, Roy was wearing an amused one and Kon was wearing a fond one. Jon and Damian wasn’t looking, both more interested in whatever was in front of them on the table.

“Come on Tim!” He hears from above. He sighs and resigns himself, he isn’t getting out of this,  begrudgingly he starts to climb the foam stairs to find where Lian had disappeared to.

30 minutes later Tim was ready to quit. He was tired and wanted to sit down. How did Lian still have so much energy? She was still running around the play area, shouting at Tim to hurry up and even dragging him along. Tim tried to go at her pace but it was hard, this body was not used to pushing itself past it’s limit and now he was super tired and surprisingly wants a nap.

Letting Lian go on ahead up the foam stairs he heads back to the table where the others are. He walks slowly now finding his feet are beginning to hurt. He makes it back to the table and stands behind Kon before leaning against his lower back. Kon jumps slightly from the touch, he turns around to find Tim there and smiles at him, “You okay?”

“How does she have that much energy? She’s like a battery or something.” Tim comments.

Kon laughs at him, “She worn you out has she?”

“Yes.”

That’s when Lian appears once again, “Timmy why did you leave? We still have yet to go in the ball pool.” She whines at him, she leans forward and grabs his hand and starts to pull him away from Kon, “Come on!”

Someone takes pity on Tim and speaks up, “Hey munchkin, why don’t you and I go play in the ball pool. Timmy here needs a rest, you’ve worn him all out.”

Lian let’s go of Tim and turns to Jason, “Yes please, let’s go Uncle Jay.”

Jason gets up and starts to follow Lian towards the children’s play area, but when he gets a few steps away from the table he stops in his tracks and turns back facing the table. After a few seconds he’s moving towards the table, he goes around it until he’s behind Damian and in a quick swift movement he has the teen up and over his shoulder like he’s a sack of potatoes.

“Todd! Put me down this instance!” Damian demands trying to wiggle out of Jason’s grip as the man heads for the children’s play area.

“Come on demon, you could use some fun.”

They hear Lian giggling her head off at the display and even Jon let out a laugh in amusement. Jon gets up from the table and follows them into the play area. Once they have all disappeared from view Tim tugs at Kon’s t-shirt to get his attention again, when the meta looks down Tim raises his arms up in a childlike fashion for Kon to pick him up. Kon’s hands wrap around his waist and lift him up, after a moment Tim’s arranged so his straddling Kon’s thighs and his head is against his chest.

Tim takes the position and leans heavily on Kon, the tiredness taking over his body. It doesn’t help when Kon starts threading his fingers through his hair and lightly massages his head. Tim sighs contently and lets him do it, he doesn’t know why but it feels so nice when it happens and he feels himself drifting off at his motions.

Tim snaps out of his dosing state when another voice speaks up, “Hey guys I am so sorry that I am super late. To be honest I wasn’t even sure if you’d be here at all or not but thankfully you are.”

Tim turns around to see Dick settling in a seat next to Roy, he was looking around obviously trying to find the where the others are. As if reading his mind Roy speaks up, “They’re in the ball pit if you’re wondering. Lian. Jason Damian and Jon.”

Dick smiles, “Ah okay.” Dick then looks over and sees Tim’s sat in Kon’s lap, “Didn’t fancy joining them Timmy?” He asks.

Tim hears, as well as feel, Kon laugh, “Lian’s already worn him out from playing in there for half an hour.”

Dick lets out a laugh after and Tim mumbles a shut up but that seems to encourage the man even more. “If you’ve still got the energy Tim I have a promise to keep, once I’ve had some food we’ll go on a few rides together.”

Tim feels himself smile at his words, he hadn’t forgot after all. Tim nods in agreement and Dick beams at him, “Brilliant! I’m going to get some food.”

By the time Dick had finished eating his food everyone else had returned from the ball pool. Comments were made and laughs were shared throughout it. For the most part Tim dosed on Conner as his body was still recovering from the time he spent running around after Lian.

“Anyway, what are we going to do now that Goldie is here?” Jason asks looking at everyone.

“Well I was going to go with Tim around the park for a bit, just the two of us as I promised him earlier we would.” Dick says.

Jon jumps in after him, “Conner can we go together and ride Space Mountain?”

Tim feels Kon shrug, “Sure, I don’t see why not.”

“Awesome let’s go!” Jon gets up from the table and starts bouncing excitedly.

Kon laughs, “Alright kid, calm down.” He gently picks Tim up and places him on the floor, he then crouches down so they’re nearly eye level, “You okay with me going?”

“Go have fun with your brother.” Tim smiles at him and Kon grins as he stands up. Once stood Jon was quick to grab his hand and start to pull him away. Tim walks around the table and stands next to Dick, who was already rising to his feet. Dick bends down and picks him up and places Tim on his hip.

“So we’ll catch you guys later, have fun!” Dick says as he walks away from the table.

* * *

Dick doesn’t put Tim down for a good 20 minutes. Tim doesn’t mind, it saves him walking around because he still feels tired even after his light nap on Kon from earlier. After walking around for a while they find a bench and settle down on it.

“So, how you doing Timmy?” Dick asks looking at him.

Tim swings his feet backwards and forwards from where they hand over the edge of the bench, “I’m okay.” He answers.

Dick smiles at him, “Yeah? I guess that’s good then. How’s Conner dealing with this situation?”

“He’s trying,” Tim tells him, “I think me being this age has made him realise that he wants kids. A few times I’ve caught him with this dreamy look on his face like he’s imaging the future or something, but he’s doing what he can.”

“Think he’s father material?” Dick asks looking amused.

“I think he is yeah, can’t say the same for myself however.”

Dick leans over and ruffles his hair, “Awww Timmy…” He coos out.

“Dick!” Tim exclaims and tries to bat the mans hands away, that just encourages Dick more. Tim finds himself getting dragged along the bench and pulled into Dick’s lap, before he could do anything Dick was running his fingers all over his sides and underneath his armpits and Tim couldn’t contain the squeal of laughter that bubbled up inside of him.

Once Dick was done tickling him, Tim was out of breath and his face was hurting from smiling so much. Dick stands up and picks him up. Placing Tim on his hip he says, “Come on, we’ll get a few rides in by the time the park closes. Oh by the way I love your shirt.”

Tim looks down at his shirt and sees the Wonder Woman pattern on it, “Yeah, Kon picked it up. It was either this or Superman.”

Dick barks out a laugh, “Brilliant, how the hell did he manage to get you in those? Do you have a batman one?” Tim chooses not to comment; however his silence gives Dick the answer he’s looking for. The man let’s out a gasp before laughing, “Oh you do! that’s brilliant! We’ll have to get you in that around the Manor at some point.”

“Shut up.” Tim pouts.

They walk around until Dick comes up to a ride, Tim looks up at Dick with a questioning look, “The carousel?”

Dick looks at him wide eyed, “Yes the carousel, it’ll be fun.”

Dick moves over to where the queue was supposed to be but fortunately it was empty and they managed to get straight onto the ride. They walk around the ride and Dick chooses them a horse to sit on, he picks up Tim and places him on the horses back, then he’s lifting himself up onto it right behind him. Tim feels Dick getting in close and he leans back into the man’s chest, Dick’s arms come up and grab the pole in front of them and effectively boxes Tim in so he can’t fall off.

Soon enough the ride starts up and cheerful music begins to play in the background. Slowly, their horse goes up and down and the ride starts to spin around, after a few times around it begins to pick up speed on the spinning.

It’s not the most exciting ride he’s been on but when he looks up at Dick and sees a huge smile on his brother’s face, Tim couldn’t help but smile too. After that the ride was a lot lighter and Tim enjoyed it a little more. It ends after 3 minutes or so, the horses stop moving and the spinning slows down to a halt. Once given the all clear Dick get’s off the horse first and then helps Tim off it and they make their way to the exit.

As they walk in another direction Dick says, “I love those rides, they always remind me of Haley’s, you know, the horses, the bright colours and cheerful music.”

Tim looks up at Dick and sends him a smile, no wonder he wanted to go on it then. Dick looks down and then squints at Tim. When he doesn’t look away Tim begins to feel uncomfortable under his gaze, “Dick?”

Dick draws back, “Sorry, but I’ve just realised that you would have been this height when you came to Hayley’s. You really are small.”

Tim pouts at the last comment, “Thanks, and yeah more or less, but remember you weren’t that tall when you were in Hayley’s either.”

Dick lets out a laugh and shrugs, “I’m okay with that,” He reaches down and grabs Tim’s hand, “Now come on, there’s another ride I want to take you on.”

Tim let’s Dick drag him along, though he has to take twice as many steps as the man because of his tiny legs making it difficult to keep up. By the time they get to the ride Dick wants to go on Tim’s all worn out again, he curses his current body for not having enough stamina. Looking at where they are Tim sees elephant shaped planes going around in circles.

Dick leads him through the entrance and over to where the line is. They don’t have to wait long as the ride that was going on comes to a stop. Once all the people have left they were allowed on, Dick leads him around the ride and goes to an empty elephant. Like with the carousal, Dick picks him up and places him in the elephant and then gets in himself. They strap up and wait for the ride to start.

A few minutes later the ride starts and Tim instantly sees people shoot up into the air, unexpectantly at that point the elephant they’re in goes shooting upwards and Tim lets out a yelp at the sudden movement. Next to him Dick was laughing. “Not funny.” Tim tells him.

That’s how most of the ride went, with Dick randomly changing their height. Tim won’t lie and say that it didn’t give him a bit of a thrill but it was just as annoying. He went from watching everything around him to watching Dick’s hand on the small lever that controlled their height, in the end he pushed Dick’s hand off it and took control of it himself.

Eventually the ride slows down and comes to a stop and Dick and Tim exit it. They walk out and head in a random direction, that’s when a cheerful tune rings out of Dick’s pocket. They stop walking and Dick brings out his phone and answers it.

A few moments later Dick’s hanging up and grinning down at Tim, “Right Baby Bird, apparently Lian is now out for the count, the day’s finally caught up on her and I’m willing to bet that you won’t be far behind either. We’ve arranged for everyone to meet at the entrance so we can get going, we’ve got one more night in the hotel then first thing tomorrow we head back for the Manor.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Tim says looking up at him.

“Glad you approve,” Dick smiles back.

Before Dick could walk off Tim lifts his arms up in the ‘pick me up’ fashion. Dick watches him with an amused expression before rolling his eyes and bending down to pick him up. He places Tim on his hip and Tim leans his head on Dick’s shoulder as the man begins to walk in the direction of the entrance.

“Thanks for keeping your promise,” Tim mumbles to him, once again he feels the tiredness taking over him.

Tim feels a hand come up to his head and as it starts to stroke his hair, “Of course Timmy, sorry I was late.”

“That’s okay.”

He has no idea how long it had been but suddenly he finds that they’ve made it to the entrance where everyone was already waiting. Jon was excitedly talking to Kon, Roy and Jason, Lian was fast asleep in Roy’s arms, Jason was holding the giant teddy bear in his arms and was wearing the Green Lantern cap that Kon had brought earlier on and Damian stood just to the side not interacting with anyone.

They reach the group and Dick bends down to place Tim on the floor, which Tim wasn’t pleased about but he uses the opportunity to walk over to Kon. He finds the meta standing there smiling at him as he approaches, “Hey, have fun?”

“I did, did you?” Tim asks back. When Kon nods he finally sees the bag that he’s holding. Pointing to it he asks, “What’s that?”

“Oh, I went back to that superhero shop that we went into and brought a few things.”

Tim rolls his eyes at that, god knows what Kon has brought.

“Right shall we get going?” Dick calls out to the group. Everyone then started to pile out of the entrance. They make their way back to the hotel and then all separate according to where their rooms are located. They made arrangements to meet early in the morning hence why they’ve called it an early night.

Tim doesn’t really pay attention to anything. The walk from the park to the hotel Kon had been carrying him, then once inside the hotel room he allowed Kon to get him ready as he didn’t really have the energy to do himself. Soon enough he found himself curled up under the covers on the bed of their room in his pyjamas and just about ready to fall asleep. He doesn’t submit to sleep until Kon was in the bed with him, once he was Tim curls into Kon’s side and soaks up the heat coming off him and then he allows himself to finally go to sleep.

Everything in the morning was a blur, from packing their things to traveling to the airport to then getting on the jet and flying home. The travel takes up most of the morning and they end up having breakfast on the plane. They spend most of their time sharing different stories of the previous day and having a laugh about what gag gifts they’ve each brought for people.

Once they were in Gotham it was then traveling from the airport and back to the Manor and by mid-afternoon they finally make it back to the Manor.

Dick’s the first one up the steps, getting the keys he opens the door and heads in first. Everyone else follows him, they pile in the hallway and dump all of their things on the floor. From where he was standing Dick stretches, “Home sweet home,” he comments.

“Indeed, home sweet home.” A new voice speaks out.

Everyone shares a wide-eyed look before looking in the direction to where the voice came from. Standing there in an expensive suit with hands in his pockets was the famous Bruce Wayne.

“Care to tell me what’s going on?”


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now back at the Manor, they have to deal with an angry Daddy Bats.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> An actual update!   
> I'm sorry for such a long wait for this chapter, especially with how the last one ended. I've been doing different bits and pieces, I also focused on Batfam week for a while and put off writing this story for that (you can read those stories on my [tumblr](https://awhitehead17.tumblr.com/) if you wish to). But anyway here it is, hopefully the next update won't take as long as this one did but I can't guarantee anything. 
> 
> Thank you all for the comments and kudos it's all very much appreciated. Please enjoy this next chapter :D

No one dared to move. As still as statues they all stare at Bruce and Bruce levels them all with a cold look in return. In the silence of the room Kon can hear his heart pounding away in his chest, if he focuses on his hearing he can hear everyone else’s beating just as loud and as fast.

The silence in the room continues for another moment and Kon honestly has no idea what to do. Walking in the Manor to find a glaring and hating Batman was not on the list of things he had planned for that day.

The silence was broken by a loud clapping noise, it only seemed loud because of how quiet the room had been. Everyone turns to the noise and looks at Roy who was stood there with a nervous smile on his face and his hands clasped together, “Oh my god, look at the time! It’s best that I get Lian back to Star, because you know she has school and it’s uh, been a long couple of days and whatnot.” He let’s out an awkward laugh and picks up his bag off the floor and shoulders it, “Nice seeing you all, and you too Bats, but um I best be going, so see ya! Thanks for the good time guys. Come on Lian honey, it’s time for us to go.”

He opens up the door and starts to leave the Manor

Lian gives her dad a confused look but starts to follow him out of the door anyway, “Bye bye Uncle Jay, see you soon.”

It takes Jason a moment to answer, but he puts a hand up and waves to her, “Bye Lian.”

Roy closes the door behind him and Kon can hear Lian ask Roy what that was all about. Roy replies to his daughter with a, “Sometimes it’s just best that you don’t ask questions sweetheart.”

Kon turns back to the rooms occupants to find that the same level of tension, maybe even more than before, has returned even with Roy’s and Lian’s exit. He looks around and frowns when he sees that both Damian and Jon are no longer in the room, they most likely used Roy’s exit as a cover to leave the room, lucky brats.

He finds Tim down by his feet, he was playing with Kon’s shoelaces which Kon is assuming is a cover up so he doesn’t have to look up at Bruce and his cold glare. Both Dick and Jason were to his right, both of them standing stiffly as Bruce gives them all a disapproving look.

Dick is the next person to break the intense silence absorbing the room, “Bruce, this isn’t what it looks like.”

Bruce turns his look on Dick, “Really? Because to me it looks like you’ve failed to inform me about a recent occurrence that’s affected one of our family members. And to top that, you all decided to take a trip to Disney World and left your sister to deal with Gotham and the man who spelled Tim on her own.”

Dick stays silent after that, he even draws back in on himself a bit. That just baffled Kon, it’s not very often you see Nightwing stand down against Batman. Kon tries to not think about it too much.

If it was even possible the tension in the room multiplied by like 100 and Kon was more than ready to leave the room, even if it meant leaving Tim behind to deal with angry Daddy Bats. But Dick then had to go and open his mouth, “Look we can explain. Let’s go in the kitchen or somewhere and we’ll tell you what’s been going. Sorry we didn’t tell you and there was no harm in going away for a few days. Cass can easily handle Gotham and Steph was with her anyway, and so was Babs.”

There’s the Nightwing that Kon was used to seeing. It seems like Dick’s confidence has returned, he’s stands up straighter and crosses his arms over his chest, he glares at Bruce as the man glares back. As the two men have their stare off Kon glances over at Jason to find him watching the scene with boredom, almost like this is an everyday occurrence. Kon thinks about it for a moment, truth be told it probably is.

Kon looks back down at Tim to find the current toddler tying his shoelaces together. Kon frowns at him but Tim is oblivious to his look and carries on with his task. After a moment Kon smirks and gets an idea. He brings up his TTK and starts to unravel the knot Tim was tying. Tim jumps at the sudden movement of the laces and even lets out a noise which has Kon chuckling. When the laces were undone Kon bends down and scoops Tim up into his arms, bringing the child against his chest Kon starts tickling him.

Tim lets out a squeal and starts thrashing in his arms but Kon doesn’t let him go, he even goes as far as using his telekinesis as an extra pair of hands to tickle him.

“Stop it! Kon! Please stop!” Tim gets out in between breathes. In the end Kon stops and gently places him on the floor, Tim simply goes limp and sprawls over his feet trying to control his breathing.

Letting out a laugh Kon straightens up. The smile on his instantly drops off as he looks up to find the three other men staring at him and Tim. He glances at each of them to find their expressions softer than what they were moments ago. Kon feels himself go hot as he blushes in embarrassment, he had completely forgotten that there was other people in the room.

He looks down at Tim, who was bright red in the face still but his breathing was now even, before looking sheepishly at the men, he shrugs “Who knew Tim was a ticklish four-year-old.”

Bruce and Jason just stare at him with bored expressions, while Dick’s face completely lights up at Kon’s comment. He grins at him, “Trust me, I _know._ ” With that statement he starts forward towards him at a slow pace.

Tim sees him coming and scrambles up off the floor and hides behind Kon’s legs, “Go away Dick.”

Dick keeps advancing towards them, wearing something close to a feral grin, “Nuh uh, Timmy.”

Deciding that he really doesn’t want to be the barrier in between them, Kon yet again brings out his TTK, he reaches behind and starts to pull Tim away from him and out in the open. “Kon!” Tim yelps trying to fight it. Kon laughs and carries on pushing him away. Dick shares a grin with him and speeds up his advance.

“No!” Tim cries. Kon lets him go and immediately Tim dashes away. He somehow dodges Dick and runs down the hallway. After getting over that Tim had dodged him, Dick chases after him.

The three men left behind watch as the two of them disappear down the hallway. Kon then watches as Bruce stares at Jason until the other man looks at him, once making eye contact they seem to have a silent conservation. Apparently the conversation goes against Jason because he ends up letting out a dramatic sigh and an eye roll, he turns and heads down the hallway that Tim and Dick just went.

At that point Kon was very aware that he was alone in the entrance with the freaking _Batman._ He works hard on not freaking out but he bets that the man knows how he’s feeling anyway, he’s freaky like that and it’s clear that’s where Tim adopted it from.

When the silence gets too much Kon starts to silently make his way down the hallway, he’s going to see if he can find the other Bats. He only gets so far when a hand lands on his shoulder and stops him in his tracks. Kon can’t help but jump at the sudden touch, he even floats up an inch or two off the floor. When he turns around he finds Bruce looking at him with a raised eyebrow and Kon can’t do anything but sheepishly shrug and settle back on the floor.

Bruce takes his hand off his shoulder, “Conner, can you tell me why I wasn’t informed about this situation?” He asks.

Kon stares at him with wide eyes, he couldn’t work out the tone the man was using, why was he looking at him like that, oh god he’s going to die isn’t he? Batman’s gonna kill him because he let something happen to one of his little birds and the exact one he happens to be dating. He’s already died, he’s not ready to do it again so soon. Wait, but what about –

“Kon-el.”

The use of his Kryptonian name gets his attention and Kon looks at him, “Huh?”

Bruce seems to smile at him, _was that an actual smile, he can’t actually tell_ , “It’s not a test, relax and just tell me why Tim didn’t immediately contact us.”

It’s only then that it clicks that the man was basically laughing at him. He probably knows the exact thoughts that Kon happened to be having. He shakes his head and tries to focus on the question being asked, it was a simple question with a simple answer.

“Um, I think it’s mostly because he didn’t want you guys involved.” Kon tells him, Bruce raises an eyebrow and Kon quickly carries on, “Please believe me that I wanted to tell you right away, I thought he was nuts not telling you guys but it was his decision and I decided to go along with it.”

Once he stops talking Kon realises that it wasn’t really an answer but he doesn’t do anything to elaborate on it. He stands there awkwardly as the other man stares at him. Kon couldn’t read his facial expression, was he thinking over Kon’s answer or was he coming up with a way to kill him then a way to discretely remove his body.

After a few moments Bruce silently turns away from him and starts walking down the hallway, Kon stares after him completely baffled. _What the…_ he shakes his head and lets it go, he thought he was used to the weird behaviour after being friends (and more) with Tim all these years but it still gets to him.

Kon walks down the hallway where everyone else had disappeared to, he follows the sound of laughing and chatter to find himself walking towards the kitchen. Scattered around the kitchen were all the Bats. Jason and Alfred were making snacks at the counter with Bruce behind them and everyone else was around the table. Tim was perched between Steph and Cass, Dick was opposite them, Jon and Damian were both at the end of the table looking at something on a tablet.

Kon walks over and sits down next to Dick. The man was slumped on the table watching as both Cass and Steph fuss over Tim as they were attempting to braid his hair. Tim looked fed up with it, every time he shifted away from one of them they would snap at him and carry on playing with his hair. He sends a wide-eyed pleading look at Kon, basically asking him for his help to get away from the girls. Kon smirks and shakes his head, he then lets out a chuckle as Tim narrows his eyes and does his cute pout and glare.

A few minutes later Steph looks up, “Hey Bruce, have you told them yet?”

Dick instantly perks up, sitting up right he sends a look at Steph before looking at Bruce, “Tell us what?”

Bruce let’s out an annoyed sigh. Leaving Alfred and Jason at the counter, he walks over and stands next to the table, “I was getting to it.” He says sending a hard look at Steph. The girl shrugs, completely unaffected by the look.

“Tell us _what?_ ” Dick asks again impatiently.

Bruce looks at him, “While you lot were... _away,_ Cass and Stephanie were able to capture the magician. I got back in time to talk to with him.”

“What did he say? Did he say why he changed Tim, or why Ra’s hired him to do so? Where is he now?”

Before Bruce could speak Steph was answering, “He told us that he only did the job because Ra’s gave him an offer that he couldn’t refuse. I think it was money or something. We don’t know why Ra’s hired this particular magician, we’ve looked into his background but not a lot was coming up, he’s committed a few petty thefts, got in trouble for speeding a few times but nothing major to tick Ra’s off. As for where he is, he’s currently with the JL, they’ll be keeping an eye on him.”

“Grandfather will find him and kill him. He had not done his job correctly, we were told that grandfather wanted Drake to be de-aged in body _and_ in mind, the magician failed therefore grandfather will find him and kill him. It does not matter if he is with the league or not.” Damian says from where he’s sat. He looks between Steph and Bruce until Jon grabs his attention again.

“Uh yeah, about that…” Steph says nervously, “The magician told us that the full effect of the spell takes around two weeks to come into play.”

Kon snaps his attention to Steph, feeling alarmed he asks, “Wait what? What does that mean?”

“It means things just went from bad to worse.” Jason comments walking over to the table. He places down a couple of plates full of different sandwiches on to the table.

Kon thinks for a moment, he looks over at Tim and finds him slightly frowning, clearly not happy with the news that this situation is probably going to get worse. Kon’s not happy about it either. “You said a couple of weeks, it’s been like 8 days since Tim got de-aged, could we not ask Zatanna to change him before it gets worse?”

Kon looks around desperately hoping one of the detectives in the room can come up with an answer. He doesn’t want anything worse to happen to Tim, he knows the Bats don’t either so surely one of them have to come up with an answer.

Next to him Dick sighs, “Because we’re dealing with magic it’s a lot harder to predict what’s going to happen. It’s not like science where there’s logic behind everything. We could ask her to change him back but that doesn’t mean anything about the spell, the spell could still have its effect over Tim in his normal body.”

“How much worse can the spell get?” Steph asks looking around. “His mind could be de-aged as well, or perhaps he gets de-aged even further into a baby.”

Next to her Tim makes a sound and puts his face into his hands. Cass and Steph immediately try to comfort him.

“We can get her to look over him again. This time she may be able to find something that she didn’t see last time.” Dick says as he takes a sandwich. Since he took one Kon leans over and takes one for himself.

“I’ll see if I contact her and get her here as soon as she can.” Bruce tells them. He then stands up straighter and crosses his arms over his chest and gives them all a hard glare, “I can’t believe I’m saying this but next time something like this happens, one of you contact me _immediately._ It was stupid of you all going away for a few days after what had happened to Ra’s and Tim, what if he had attacked you there, you would have put yourselves and everyone else at risk.”

“But we weren’t attacked and we’re fine.” Dick sates firmly now glaring at Bruce. “A couple days away was just what Tim needed, he needed to get his mind off what had happened. We were all careful. If Ra’s happened to attack us and if he somehow got a hold of Tim we would get him back just like last time.”

“Last time you got lucky with how quickly you found him. Next time you may not have that luck.”

“There won’t be a next time.”

“You’re right. There won’t be. Until this situation is sorted Tim will be staying at the Manor where I can keep an eye on him until further notice.” Bruce doesn’t wait for Dick’s answer, he turns in his spot and stalks out of the kitchen.

At Bruce’s exit, silence envelops the room. It doesn’t last long however because Jason soon barks out a laugh, “Wow. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen Daddy Bats be that over protective.” He sends a smirk at Tim. “How’s it feel to be grounded Timmy?”

Tim says, “fuck off Jason,” at the same time as Dick says, “shut up Jay.”

Jason draws back and raises his eyebrows at Tim, he then turns to Kon, “What sort of things have you been teaching that child?”

Kon rolls his eyes, “Go to hell Jason.” He says.

His comment makes Jason laugh, “Shut up, fuck off and go to hell. Make up your minds to which one you want me to do.”

“Why not all three?” Multiple people say simultaneously. They look at each other before laughing.

Jason frowns, “Rude.”

“We love you really,” Steph tells him with a smirk.

“Yeah, I’m really feeling the love blondie.”

Kon smiles as the two of them begin to bicker, but his attention was quickly drawn away from them and over to Tim. He was still sat between Cass and Steph but instead of looking up he was staring at the sandwiches, not in the way that shows that he wants one but in the way that shows he’s in deep thought.

His little face was scrunched up as he stared at the food. His intense look just made Kon want to cuddle him and comfort him. The situation they’ve now found themselves in does suck but Kon doesn’t know how to make it better. They’re going to try and contact Zatanna but until then he has no idea what to do.

When Kon turns his attention back to the other bats he find Steph menacingly pointing a sandwich in Dick’s direction, she’s going on about how she’s offended that she wasn’t invited to Disney World.

Kon gets up from his seat and walks around the table. He crouches down behind Tim’s seat and pokes the toddler lightly to get his attention. “Hey Tim, do you want to go up stairs for a bit?” Kon asks him, once they’re alone Kon could talk to him and try to work out what Tim is thinking.

Two blue orbs turn to him and study him for a moment, eventually Tim nods and holds up his arms up. Kon stands up and reaches over the chair to pick Tim up. Placing Tim on his hip, Kon reaches out and snags some sandwiches. After that he starts to head out of the kitchen and towards Tim’s bedroom upstairs.

Getting to his room, Kon closes the door behind him and places Tim down on the bed. Kon puts the sandwiches on the bedside table and sits cross legged on the bed facing Tim. He looks at the toddler for a moment, before reaching out and dragging him onto his lap and holds him close.

Kon feels Tim relax in his hold and he presses a kiss on top of his head, “What are you thinking Tim?”

Tim takes a moment to answer, when he does it’s quiet. “I don’t really know Kon. How am I supposed to take the news that I’m mostly likely going to get worse in the next week? In this body I can’t do anything to defend myself and that means I have to rely on you and the others, I mean what happens if Ra’s decides to attack again, I can’t do anything.”

Kon frowns as he listens to Tim talk. What he’s saying is true of course but Kon can’t help but feel completely helpless and even guilty.

“Then there’s the whole Bruce thing,” Tim continues, “I mean I’m not really bothered by being ‘grounded’ but he kind of did over react but at the same time I can kind of see where he’s coming from. Going Disney world was irresponsible, but it did take my mind off what had happened.”

Kon doesn’t really know what to say, instead he presses another kiss to his head and hugs him a little tighter. “Tim, dude, I don’t really know what to say because this situation is just… bizarre, but if there’s anything I can do to help you get through this, whatever happens, just tell me and I’ll do it.”

Tim shifts in his arms and looks up at him, his big blue eyes filled with child innocence that Kon hasn’t seen on Tim before the de-aging. Tim smiles, “Just be here with me please.”

Kon smiles at him and holds back a snarky comment about how that’s the last thing Tim actually needs to ask and he kisses his head once again, “Of course.”

Kon then leans over and grabs the sandwiches that he brought up with him. He hands one to Tim and starts eating one himself. They sit in a comfortable silence eating the food until it was all gone, then they sit together and chat. At this point Kon had now moved positions, he’s moved over to the head of the bed and was leaning against the headboard with Tim sat comfortably in his lap with his head tucked underneath Kon’s chin.

A while later a knock comes from the door, Kon and Tim share a look before Kon says, “Come in.”

The door opens and reveals Bruce, the man looks at them, “I hope I’m not intruding.”

“It’s okay.” Tim tells him quietly. He starts squirming in Kon’s lap and Kon helps him get down. Standing up on the mattress Tim faces Bruce, “What is it Bruce?”

Bruce stares at him before blinking and walking further into the room. The man crouches down next to the bed so he’s eye level with Tim, “I was able to contact the League but unfortunately not to Zatanna. According to the League, all the magicians from Earth have been called off world to deal with something that no one apparently knows about. It was secret and they had to leave urgently meaning there isn’t anyone around to help us in this situation.”

Tim frowns at him, “How long will they be gone?”

Bruce shakes his head, “I’m afraid I don’t know. I don’t know anything about it and apparently no one else does either. Hopefully they won’t be gone for too long.”

“What about the guy who did this to Tim, can’t you just make him reverse the spell or something?” Kon speaks up looking between them both.

“I don’t trust him. If we put Tim in front of him he could easily cast a spell that could have much worse effects to what they are now. As much as I hate it, waiting until Zatanna or someone like Dr. Fate to get back is our best option at the moment. I will keep looking for another solution but I thought I’d tell you that now just so you’re aware.”

Tim’s reply was quiet, “Yeah. Thanks Bruce.”

Bruce watches him and then reaches out and gently ruffles his hair. He gets up and wordlessly exits the room, closing the door behind him. Kon turns his attention back on Tim who seems to have drawn in on himself again. Kon’s heart feels heavy in his chest, it’s just one thing after another at this point.

Just like earlier Kon stretches forward and drags Tim onto his lap. Kon wraps his arms around him and gives him a squeeze, he then shifts them back into the position they were in before Bruce came in. Digging into his pocket Kon brings out his phone and brings up Wendy the Werewolf Stalker and puts on their favourite episodes.

Kon may not be able to do anything about the situation to make it better but the least he can do is at least try to distract Tim for a bit. Normally his types of distractions are sex marathons or something along that line and obviously that won’t work at this moment in time, so he figures watching the show on his phone is the next best thing.  


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Father and son bonding time.

“Are you sure about this?”

“Yes, I’m sure.”

“Really, because surely Dick or Jason wouldn’t mind-”

“Kon, seriously, going to Bruce is the best option.”

Bruce looks up from his paperwork to stare at the closed door in front of him when he heard the voices outside. He didn’t even hear them approach the door, normally when people walk towards his study certain floor boards creek and that gives him some warning that someone is approaching but this time there was no warning. That means that either Kon-el was flying, or he was just absorbed in his paper work that he failed to notice them approach. He has a feeling that it was the former rather than the latter and that thought does not please him at all.

The pair outside of the door were still bickering. “I don’t understand that’s all.”

“Well I would be completely fine on my own but since you’re insisting that I shouldn’t be left alone in this body, Bruce is the person I’m choosing to stay with.”

“I stand by what I said. You shouldn’t be left alone because something bad will happen if no one is around to supervise you. You know I can always stay, they don’t necessarily need me.”

Bruce decides to get up and go to the door. If the pair of them aren’t going to knock and enter he may as well greet them instead.

“The Titan’s need you Kon. You can’t just ignore our team. They need another heavy hitter, that happens to be you so you have to go.”

“I don’t want to leave you alone here though.”

Bruce gets to the door and opens it up. As he does so, he’s meet with two wide eyed looks. He looks at the clone before looking down at the toddler. “May I help you?” He asks. He has an idea what the pair wants from him from hearing their conversation.

Tim’s the one to speak up at him while Kon-el just stands there and gapes at him. One of Tim’s tiny arms shoot out and points at his companion, “ _He_ has been called to help out the Titan’s as they need another heavy hitter, but he’s reluctant to go because of me. I’ve told him that you can look after me so he can go.”

Bruce studies both of them for a minute before turning to the bigger one, “Kon-el, you have a responsibility with your team, if they’ve asked you for your help you should go. I can easily watch over Tim while you’re busy.” He tells the young man.

Kon-el continues to gape at him like a goldfish before he seems to find himself and manages to speak to him, “But I don’t think they really need me for this… sir. I think they’ll manage on their own.”

From near the floor Tim lets out a very audible huff, he stomps his foot and puts his hands on his hips as if he’s exasperated. Bruce gets the feeling that they’ve been arguing over this for some time. He appreciates Kon-el’s devotion for Tim, it’s cute and understandable but at the same time he is part of a team and while Tim’s situation is… unusual, there is no need for him to be with him 24/7, especially if there other people who are around that can help.

Using a different tactic Bruce turns to the meta human and fakes a disappointed frown, “Are you saying that you don’t trust me to look after my own son?”

Bruce takes the satisfaction of watching the meta’s eyes widen significantly in a mixture of shock and horror. He takes a step back and stutters, “Ab-absolutely not. I -uh- I didn’t mean that at all! I, I, just meant because you know… um...”

Next to him Tim hits his calf, “Kon relax, he’s just teasing you.”

Kon-el shuts his mouth as he looks down at Tim before glancing at him then back at the toddler. “How the hell am I supposed to know that dude?!”

Tim rolls his eyes, “Kon just go. You’re wasting time here and I’m sure you won’t be too long. I’m safe, you need to stop worrying so much.”

Kon stares at him for a moment before sighing, “Okay! Okay, fine you win I’ll go. Just be careful okay.”

Tim sends him a sweet and innocent smile, “I’ll be fine. Make sure _you_ be careful.”

“Will do.” Kon-el bends down and presses a kiss to Tim’s head. He straightens back up and glances at Bruce, “Is it, can I go, where shall I…”

Bruce refrains from rolling his eyes at his stutter, is he really that scary? Since having kids he’s sure that he’s mellowed out a bit. “Go out the back and go from the yard. No one will see you.” He answers Kon-el’s unspoken question.

He nods once and gives Tim another kiss before running off down the corridor. Well sort of running, it doesn’t go unnoticed that his feet don’t actually touch the ground as he runs. That’s twice now that the meta has used his powers in his house, three times if he includes yesterday’s scene, he’s really going to have to talk to him about that.

He feels tugging at his leg, looking down he finds Tim looking up at him. Two wide blue orbs staring at him with that curious gaze that all children seem to have. “Bruce?” Tim speaks up, “You are okay watching me right, because I can look after myself despite what Kon seems to think.”

Bruce watches him for a moment, just taking in how tiny Tim actually is. He knows kids are small but Tim just looks so _delicate_ standing next to him. He doesn’t even reach past his knees! While looking at him he notices that Tim is in thin Justice League pyjama’s. They just make him look even more precious!

Bruce has never had the privilege of having any of his kids at this age Tim is currently stuck at, the youngest that any of his kids came to him was Dick when he was nine years old after the tragic death of his parents but by then Dick had already developed his personality, could walk and speak properly. The others were all in their teens and basically at the stage of puberty, besides Damian but he was already way more mature than the average ten-year-old.

As Bruce looks at him he can vaguely remember Tim at this age for the first time. He remembers Tim in a small tux outfit attending a few of the charity events that Gotham’s social elite often held with his parents. He’s pretty sure he’s even babysat Tim a few times as a favour to Janet and Jack Drake.

More tugging of his leg puts his attention back on Tim. There’s a little frown crossing his features now, “Bruce? You okay?”

Bruce gives him an easy smile, “I’m fine Tim. And I don’t mind watching over you but I unfortunately have a meeting at half three at WE, so I will have to pass you onto someone else until Kon-el gets back.”

The frown stays on Tim’s face, “Okay… if you’re sure.”

Bruce rolls his eyes, “I am capable of looking after children you know.”

Tim now gives him a look of what he’s guessing is disbelief, “Sure, you keep telling yourself that.”

Bruce decides to not engage in that conversation with the current four-year-old. Instead he bends down and picks him up. He places Tim on his hip before turning around and heading back into his study and closes the door behind him. He walks around to where he was sat and places Tim down on the desk next to his papers before he sits down himself in his chair

He leans back and watches as Tim’s focus zeroes in on his paper work. He gives Tim a minute to look over it before intervening. It’s when Tim picks up the paper and studies it that Bruce leans forward and plucks the page out of his small hands, just because he hadn’t been informed about the whole de-aging ordeal doesn’t mean he wasn’t informed about Tim ‘feinting’ and he agrees that his son needs a break from work.

Bruce places the page back in its original position face down so Tim couldn’t see it. A pout form on Tim’s face as he looks at the paper and it’s then that something occurs to him. Bruce looks at him, “Did you just want to be with me for the possibility that I might let you work?”

Tim’s pout turns sheepish and a blush works it’s way onto his cheeks, “Maybe?” He says.

Bruce refrains from rolling his eyes. Out of all of his children Tim was the one who was most like him work ethic wise, if there was something he could be doing he’d do it no matter what state he was in and being in a child’s body was no different. He lets out a sigh and gives his son a look, “I’ve spoken with Dick and Jason they both said that they wanted you have to have time off work and they thought you being in a child’s body would help with that. I agree with them, though I’d rather you be in your own body, but having time off is essential to your health Tim.”

Tim’s pout returns and he even sticks out his bottom lip, crossing his arms over his chest he huffs out, “I’m not a baby Bruce, I can look after myself. And anyway, you’re one to talk!”

Bruce ignores the jab and carries on looking at Tim, the way he’s talking and his current body position is counteracting what he’s saying, it’s amusing to watch really. It’s then, however, that something clicks in Bruce’s head, “Is that why you didn’t let us know immediately Tim? You didn’t want to be treated like a baby?”

Tim’s pout once again disappears and is swapped for a look of guiltiness.

Bruce carries on talking, “Tim, we all love you and we just want what’s best for you okay. I know that it all can be a little much all at once-”

“That’s an understatement.” Tim mutters.

“-but you’re family and we just care for you. I’m not happy that you withheld what had happened to you from the family and from me so when you’re back to normal there will be some form of punishment-”

“Punishment!” Tim exclaims looking at him with wide eyes. “I’m twenty years old, you can’t punish me!”

Bruce narrows his eyes at his son, “I’m your father and I can do as I please.” Tim opens his mouth to talk but Bruce cuts him off already knowing what he’s going say, “I don’t care that you’re emancipated, you are still my son and I shall do what I think fits.”

His pout returns along with mutters about how it’s totally unfair. Bruce can’t help but smirk at his son’s complaints, Tim is a very mature young man in his normal body but he can certainly have his moments. He reaches out and ruffles Tim’s hair which gets him a squawk in protest.

The two of them fall into silence and Bruce sees Tim swinging his legs backwards and forwards from where he was sat on the edge of the desk and he wonders for a moment whether Tim is even aware he was doing it or not. He smiles to himself as memories appear in his mind of when Dick and Jason were young and as they sat on the counter or his desk swinging their legs backwards and forwards while they eagerly talked about whatever was going through their heads.

“How are you holding up Tim?” Bruce asks the current toddler.

Tim blinks at him for a moment before looking away and shrugging, “I’m fine, why?”

“Just asking that’s all. I know about what happened with Ra’s.”

Two narrowed eyes turn to him, “It wasn’t Kon’s fault.” He states firmly.

Bruce holds up a hand, “I never said it was.” As much as he would like to blame the meta for his son’s kidnapping he knows he can’t because he knows exactly what Talia (and even Ra’s) can be like. “I just want to make sure you’re okay. I have the computer running, it’ll alert me as soon as the others come back from wherever they have gone. I’m not happy that there isn’t more I can do for you, I would go to the magician who did this to you but I don’t trust him and I’m not taking that chance.”

Tim’s look has softened up, “Bruce it’s okay. I understand. You don’t need to explain yourself to me.”

Bruce can’t help but frown at Tim’s attempt to comfort him. It’s wrong for a voice that young to be comforting someone as old as him, well he’s not that old but he’s a dad with four adult children and a teenage son, some days that makes him feel extremely old, god knows how Alfred feels some days.

Bruce reaches out and grabs Tim, he picks him up and places him in his lap and gives him a gentle hug. He feels Tim stiffen at the contact but soon enough he relaxes in his hold. After a minute or two Bruce loosens up and places Tim back on the desk in front of him, Tim sends him a small smile and Bruce can’t help but return it.

Bruce looks around for a moment trying to decide what to do. Really he should be getting on with his paper work, but honestly it isn’t due for another few days so he can afford to put it off in favour for spending time with his son, though unfortunately he does need to go to that stupid meeting later on today.

“Tim, was there anything you wanted to do?” He asks the current toddler. Tim looks at him with to big blue eyes before glancing down at the papers on the desk and Bruce sighs, “That doesn’t include WE work or vigilante business.”

A pout crosses Tim’s face before he’s perking up, “Actually there is something I want to do if you’re happy to help.”

Bruce looks at him waiting for him to continue, when he doesn’t Bruce prompts him, “What’s that then?”

“Um…” Tim looks at him before looking away again, almost like he’s nervous about asking Bruce to help him with whatever it is, “I was thinking about updating my staff, you know giving it moderations and all that. We could on it together, if you want?”

Despite it technically being vigilante business Bruce agrees to help Tim with his weapon. It isn’t investigation work or even trying to be out in the field so he doesn’t see the harm in it. He’s kind of honoured that Tim has asked him if he wanted to help him out with it, Bruce can’t remember the last time he had actually worked on something with Tim. Of course he’d rather have Tim in his normal body but for now he’ll take what he can get.

“Where’s your staff?” Bruce asks him.

“The one I want to work on is down in the cave.” Tim tells him.

Bruce nods, that’s easy to get to then. Depending on where Tim wants to work on it will depend on whether Bruce needs to go down to the cave and collect it or if he’ll be taking Tim down to the cave.

However before that, first things first, “Have you had breakfast yet?” Bruce questions Tim.

Tim nods and looks up at him, “Yeah, Kon and I were having breakfast when his communicator started beeping. He answered it and the Titan’s need him, they were apparently reluctant to call him as he was me because I ‘feinted’ but they didn’t have any other choice. But he was reluctant to go so I told I’ll be fine but he didn’t want to leave me on my own so then I suggested that I spend some time with you and you basically know the rest.”

Bruce blinks at him a few times, all he expected was a yes or no answer. Tim can be known for just giving blunt one-worded answers (another thing that makes him much like Bruce) so he didn’t expect him to elaborate what happened during breakfast. At least it makes it a bit more believable that he actually did have some breakfast.

Getting himself together Bruce opens his mouth to speak but Tim cuts him off before he could say anything, “Oh yeah, while I’m thinking about it, Bruce can you please not tease Kon.”

Bruce raises an eyebrow at his son, again Tim’s caught him off guard with what he’s saying. He hadn’t expected Tim to say anything about that.

" _I_ know when you’re teasing and having a bit of fun, but Kon doesn’t. He’s petrified of you as it is and you don’t help the matter by teasing him.”

“Well he should be afraid of me.” Bruce comments. He’s the goddamn Batman, everyone should be afraid of him.

“Well Kon is my boyfriend and has been for several years, I don’t really appreciate you scaring him more than you have to.” A pout appears on Tim’s face.

Tim’s look conflicts Bruce into wanting to squish his little face in his hands and coo at him and him wanting to burst out laughing. In the end he chooses to just go neutral, the Batman doesn’t laugh or coo at things. He looks at Tim and says, “I’ll compromise, when Kon-el stops using his powers in the Manor I’ll stop teasing him, but until then I’ll tease him as much as I please.”

Tim studies him for a moment before sighing, “Fine, I’ll speak to Kon about it.”

Bruce lets a smirk slide onto his lips, “Glad we came to a mutual agreement. Now,” Bruce stands up and stretches, “Where would you like to work on this staff?”

He bends forwards and picks up Tim, placing him on his hip Bruce starts to walk out of his study.

Tim takes the movement in stride and quickly settles in the hold, “Um, can we do it in the cave?”

Bruce looks down at him, “If you want to.” Something then occurs to him, “Though we should change you first, get you into some warmer clothes. The cave can be quite chilly and we don’t want you getting ill while stuck in this body.”

Tim frowns at him, “But I don’t have any clothes here.”

Bruce considers it for a moment but then he remembers something, “Didn’t you have a bag with you from when you went Disney?”

Tim looks thoughtful for a minute before replying, “Uh yeah, that’s in my room. I thinks there’s a clean outfit in it.”

Bruce starts walking towards Tim’s room, “We’ll just have to see then won’t we. If not we can always do some laundry or we can work on the staff up here in the Manor where it’s warmer.”

Tim smiles at him, “Sure.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey so another update, hoped you all liked it! Gotta love a bit of Bruce and Tim bonding time, speaking of which I apologise that Bruce is basically out of character. With the theme of this story I just couldn't write him dark and grim, so this version happened. 
> 
> Unfortunately I don't know when the next update will be, so sorry about that. I'm going to London for most of next week so I won't be writing then but after that I'm not sure. But I want to say thank you for all the kudos and comments, they are appreciated and it's definitely a motivating factor to know that people enjoy this story. 
> 
> Anyway please stay tuned for the next update!


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's a reason behind why no one trusts Tim on his own and this recent event just proves that he really does need a baby sitter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At last we have an update! Sorry for the wait for this one, it was a little bit challenging to write and was a bitch to edit because I kept changing my mind of how I wanted the chapter to go but I finally settled with something. I just want to thank everyone again for the comments and all the kudos, it's amazing to know that people like this story and thank you for sticking with me this far into it. 
> 
> Warnings! This chapter contains an injury of a child (and yes I realise that I'm spoiling the chapter but it's just best to warn people beforehand just in case anyone doesn't want to read it. It's not a major injury but it's an injury none the less).

Tim was disappointed when Bruce announced that he had to go and get ready for his meeting. He was enjoying the time with his adoptive father as they made changes and created plans to improve his weaponry. At first they simply focused on his staff but they soon started to make plans for the rest of his suit, but unfortunately all good things must come to an end.

Like Kon, Bruce believes that Tim shouldn’t be left alone and that resulted in them trying to find his brother’s within the Manor. The first one they happened to find was Dick who was in the kitchen having a conversation with Alfred. Deciding to leave them be Bruce and Tim carry on traveling through the Manor until they found the next one. They find Jason sitting in the library reading a book. Tim decides to stay with Jason over the two others, Dick’s busy chatting to Alfred and there’s no way in hell that he was going to spend time with Damian. So Bruce deposits him in the library with the second eldest.

Tim walks over to the sofa Jason was sat on and chucks his staff on the seat (he had grabbed the weapon from the table before leaving the cave as he wants to continue making plans for it) before trying to climb up onto it himself. The first attempt was futile, he simply slid back down onto the floor and the second attempt had the same result. It wasn’t until his third attempt that Jason intervened, as Tim started to slide off the seat a hand reaches out and grabs the back of his shirt. The same hand easily lifts him up and drops him on the sofa.

Tim makes a noise of displeasure and rights himself on the seat, he looks over at his brother who had his eyes on his book, “I would have done it on my own.” He states. 

Jason snorts as he turns a page, “I bet you would have.”

Tim crosses his arms over his chest, “I’ve managed before.” He looks at the book Jason is reading, “What you reading?”

“Pride and Prejudice.” Tim’s eyes widen, he didn’t know his brother liked Jane Austen. Jason glances over and sees his expression, his lips curl into a smirk, “Don’t act so surprised Baby Bird.”

“I didn’t mean it like that, it just surprised me that’s all.” Tim glances up at him before looking at the book then back up at Jason again, “Hey, could you read to me?”

Jason raises an eyebrow at him, “Read to you? Why?”

Tim shrugs, “Well Bruce is going to a meeting, Kon is on a mission, Dick’s busy with Alfred, there’s no way I’m hanging around Damian and Bruce doesn’t trust me on my own. Could you read to me to kill some time?”

Jason stares at him for moment before sighing, “If I have too.”

Tim frowns, he doesn’t want to make Jason feel obligated to entertain him, he was just thinking that it could kill some time and that they could be spend some quality time together.

A finger bopping his nose gets his attention, “Timbo, relax, I was just joking alright.”

“I just don’t want you to feel like you have to that’s all.”

Jason only smiles and gets up off the sofa. Tim watches as the man walks to the book shelves and as he scans them, his finger runs along the spines of the books before stopping on one. Jason pulls the book out and flashes him the cover, “How about Harry Potter?”

Tim smiles, “That’s fine.”

Jason returns the smiles and heads back for the sofa. Settling down he pulls Tim closer to him, Tim goes with the motion and tucks himself up against Jason’s side. His brother opens up the book and starts reading from the first page, his voice soft and mellow. If Tim hadn’t of heard Jason use this tone of voice before he wouldn’t even believe that his brother was capable of sounding so soft. It’s such a contrast to what he sounds like as the Red Hood.

He doesn’t know how long they were there together and to be honest Tim doesn’t care. Spending some time with Jason doing something as simple as reading a story together was far more enjoyable than he would have thought. Maybe it’s because he’s in this body so it’s easier to please him or maybe it’s because he hasn’t spent any time with Jason where it’s just the two of them? Whatever the reason Tim was enjoying it.

He enjoys it until Jason’s phone starts to ring in his pocket. Jason pauses halfway through the chapter and digs out his phone, having to move Tim off him to do so. The loss of warmth makes Tim shiver slightly.

Jason answers his phone, “What’s up? What? No! I told you that it’s the left-hand side not the right! No you idiot if you listened – what? Oh my god Roy you useless red headed human being, hang on, I’ll go to the cave and bring up the information.”

Shoving the phone between his shoulder and cheek Jason puts a bookmark in the book and closes it, he glances at Tim before standing up, “Sorry to cut this short Baby Bird but I just need to go sort out this moron before he gets himself killed. We cool to continue it later?”

Tim can’t do anything but silently nod his head, he doesn’t want Jason to go but Roy needs his help so Tim doesn’t protest. It would just be selfish if he did.

Jason sends him a smile, he reaches forward and ruffles his hair, “Thanks Timmy. This shouldn’t take too long so afterwards if you want to we can continue it.”

“Okay.” Tim whispers. Jason sends him one more smile before darting out of the room and presumably towards the cave. Tim quietly curses Roy, damn him for interrupting them.

Tim sits there wondering what to do with himself. He could stay in the library and choose to read another book while he waits, he could go and find Dick to see if he’s available or he could go and find Damian (ha-ha no chance in that happening).

Sighing Tim leans against the back of the sofa and lands on something hard. He turns to find that it’s his staff. He had completely forgotten that it was there and seeing it gives him an idea to what he could do, grabbing it he makes his way off the couch and starts to head for his room. It’s a longer walk than he remembers it being but he concludes that it only feels like that because he’s barely three feet high (or whatever height he actually is at the moment) and his legs are tiny so it takes him longer to walk.  

He makes it to the stairs and starts the mountain climb up them. By the time he reaches the top he’s nearly out of breath and takes a moment to sit and catch his breath. After a few minutes he carries on the adventure to his room.

Who knows how long later he eventually makes it to his room and climbs on to his bed. He sprawls out and takes his time to recover. _This is ridiculous,_ he thinks to himself, _he can survive half an hour running around after Lian but can’t survive a trip up the stairs. What kind of bullshit is that?_

Eventually he gets himself together and sits back up on the mattress. He grabs his staff and starts working through the ideas and plans that he and Bruce had made earlier that day. He can’t actually do anything practical to the weapon as his tiny hands wouldn’t be capable of handling delicate objects needed to make the staff functional, so for now he settles on imagining and creating in his mind.

* * *

“Titus that is not a stick!” Tim yells as he tries to pull his bo staff out of the Great Dane’s mouth.

_Damn this body,_ of course Tim being stuck in this tiny body and the monstrous size of the dog he has no hope in getting his staff back unless the dog willingly let’s it go, but by the way Titus starts to tug back, that won’t be happening any time soon.

Tim was happily in his room playing with his bo staff thinking through the moderations he could make to it when the Great Dane had just barged into his room. Normally Tim wouldn’t have any problems with the dog but when said dog jumps at him and grabs his weapon, he isn’t pleased.

Now the dog thinks they’re playing tug of war which Tim is not happy about as he’s currently being chucked around all over the place like a rag doll as he tries to keep his grip on his staff.

“Titus let go!” He shouts again, but the dog just growls at him and keeps pulling.

Tim’s grip loosens and he ends up letting go. The dog barks happily at the victory and wags his tail. Tim groans in frustration and goes to grab the staff again, however the stupid dog has other ideas because he’s suddenly turning around and running out of the bedroom door.

In the back of his mind Tim knows he’s just encouraging the dog by going after him but he is not being beaten that easily, he has to much pride to just accept defeat.

He chases the dog.

Titus was sat waiting for him in the middle of the hallway, so when the Great Dane spots him leaving his room the dog barks happily and wags his tail. Seeing him, Tim starts to run towards him but his tiny legs can only go so fast and by the time he was half way to the dog Titus started to bound away with the weapon in his mouth.

Tim carries on running and chases the dog through the hallway. They run for what feels like ages as they go through the maze that is the Manor. After a while of running Tim can feel himself getting tired, his legs are beginning to hurt and his chest is starting to ache from the lack of breath, but despite his disadvantage in being in a four-year-olds body he wasn’t going to give up chasing the dumb dog to get his weapon back.

Up ahead he sees Titus stop and for a moment Tim hopes the dog was now bored of running away from him and that he was giving up. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case.

Tim carries on sprinting towards the dog at the top pace he could and because he was so focused on Titus he failed to see what was beyond the Great Dane, so when the dog dodged to the left to avoid him, Tim’s momentum carried him forward and straight onto the stairs.

Where Tim would have been able to stop himself in his normal body, he didn’t have the same control in this child’s body meaning he couldn’t actually stop himself from going over onto the stairs and before he knew it he was falling down the steps. His shoulders and back were continuously hitting the hard steps painfully, his arms often getting crushed between his body and the step underneath him.  

As if falling down the stairs wasn’t painful enough, there was sudden pain exploding in his wrist and up his arm which causes him to cry out. It was so painful that it practically drowned out everything around him and all he could focus on was the agony that he felt in his right wrist. It even took him a little while to realise that he had stopped falling and was now sprawled out at the bottom of the stair case.

While trying to ignore his throbbing wrist, Tim attempts to get his breathing under control. If he could clear his head he could try and work out what’s wrong with him, but like his wrist his head was hurting. A whimper escapes him as he tries to shift his body, his wrist hurt and he could feel it throbbing and his whole arm was now tingling.

Once feeling like he could he tries to shift again, he now recognises that he’s sprawled out on his stomach so he slowly starts to attempt to roll over onto his back. He gets half way but then makes a wrong move that sends a jolt of sharp pain to run through him, it causes him to cry out once again.

In the end he just settles for lying there whimpering and sobbing while waiting for someone to find him. His mind is too clouded in pain to be thinking rationally and what he should really be doing in this situation. His wrist was throbbing painfully and that’s all he could think about.

“Tim?” He hears a voice call from somewhere. Tim could only whimper in response, it hurt too much to move. “Timmy!” It’s the same voice but it seems so much closer than before. “Timmy, what happened?”

Tim lets out another whimper.

“Oh Timmy, what did you do huh?”

Then there were hands on him, moving over his body lightly and then gently grabbing him underneath the arms. Tim cries out as his wrist was moved and the hands on him pause their movement.

Near him another voice speaks out, “I think it’s his wrist, he’s done something to it. Jeeze Baby Bird, how did you manage that?”

Tim answers with a broken sob.

“Timmy, I’m going to carry on picking you up alright. I’ll be as careful as I can.”

Tim was once again being lifted and unfortunately his arm gets jolted in the process, he couldn’t help but scream from the pain that floods his body.

“Hurts...” He gets out with a sniff. Arms circle his body and he’s being drawn into a warm chest. Tim buries his face into the chest and sobs. In the back of his mind he knows he’s acting like an actual four-year-old but he doesn’t care, the warmth that’s radiating from the body he’s pressed up against is making him feel safe and he’s currently experiencing what seems to be the most painful thing in his life right now. Screw what he looks like.

It’s only then he realises that it’s Dick who’s handling him. There was something about the hand running through his hair that made it click for him.

“I’ll go get Alfred and you take him down to the cave.” He hears the other person say

“Yeah okay. Come on Timmy let’s get you looked at.”

Tim sniffs once again, trying to control the tears, “Sorry...”

Dick is instantly shushing him, “There’s no need to be sorry Tim, accidents happen okay. I’m going to stand up now.”

Tim feels Dick’s arms tighten around him and the movement causes him to whimper once again as Dick presses his sensitive body. From there Tim feels a rhythmic motion, a gentle sway to his body. After a moment it clicks that Dick was now walking and going at a slow pace. He walks through the Manor and heads for the cave, the entire time he gently rubs Tim’s back and makes quiet shushing noises.

The swaying motion soon changes to a more bounce like pattern, Tim works out that they’ve arrived at the cave and was now descending down the stairs. Eventually the bouncing motion changes back into that swaying motion as Dick reaches the bottom of the stairs and continues to walk.

Soon enough they come to a stop and Tim feels Dick shift, his hands move away from his back and to his underarms.  Tim let’s out a distressed sound as he’s pulled away from the body and placed down onto something soft, he tries to reach out and grab Dick’s retreating arms but the movement sends pain running through his body and more sobs escape him.

It hurts.

Why was he in so much pain? Tim really wishes he could be thinking clearly but all his thoughts just turn to his throbbing wrist and his aching body. If he was in his normal body he wouldn’t be experiencing this, he’d just be able to ignore it and carry on with life, however in this pathetic child’s body he can’t think of anything else but the pain.

“Timmy?”

Tim blinks and wipes his eyes with his good hand trying to see who spoke to him. Looking up he sees Dick looking at him with a small frown on his face and next to him stood Alfred. _When did he get there?_

“Master Tim can you tell me what happened?” Alfred asks him softly, stepping towards him.

Tim opens his mouth to answer him but all that escapes him was another broken sob. Alfred doesn’t say anything but he has a look on his face that says he understands. The elderly man carefully reaches for Tim’s arm and catching the intended action Tim jerks away from him, the motion only sends more pain through him.

“Oh Timmy…” Dick says and then he’s moving. He sits down next to him and gently picks him up before Tim could refuse the action. More broken sounds escape him as he’s placed on Dick’s lap, arms circle him and there’s a shushing sound next to his ear.

Several moments go by and Dick’s speaking to him in a soft and compassionate voice, “You gotta let Alfred have a look at your arm kiddo. He needs to see it then we can give you something for the pain. Okay? You can do that can’t you?”

Tim shakes his head and lets out an unhelpful, “hurts…” into Dick’s chest.

“I know buddy, I know, but you gotta. Alfred can’t help you get better if you won’t let him see it.”

Tim doesn’t say anything this time, he knows Dick is right of course but it’s hard to let the elderly man have clear access to his arm knowing that it’s going to hurt no matter how gentle Alfred’s touches are.

Dick must take Tim’s silence as confirmation because the next thing that’s happening is his right arm’s being moved and hands begin to probe it with delicate touches. When the touches get down to where the apparent injury is at, Tim let’s out a sound and buries his face deeper into Dick’s chest.  

There’s a few more touches around his injury before the hands leave his limb and disappear. Around him voices were talking but Tim couldn’t focus on them, his wrist and the tingling sensation in his arm distract him enough from focusing on what they were saying.

Some time passes in between and the next thing Tim knows is that his head is being forced to turn and then there’s something being pressed against his lips. Opening his eyes from where they had been closed Tim sees that Dick was holding a spoon with purple liquid on it to his lips. Tim frowns and stubbornly presses his lips tight together, he has no idea what they want him to swallow so he wasn’t doing it. The spoon moves away before coming back, it tries to pry his mouth open but Tim doesn’t budge.

Dick’s voice appears next to his ear, in that same tone as before he says, “Tim, it’s your medicine buddy. Can you open up your mouth for us and swallow? I promise that it’ll help you feel better.”

Tim shakes his head and looks away from the spoon hoovering in front of his face.

“Tim. Tim can you look at me?” A different voice speaks to him.

Tim glances to the side to see that Jason was now in front of him instead of Alfred and how he was now holding the spoon. The two of them share a look before Jason changes his expression to a sterner one, “Tim I’ll give you one more chance to willingly take the medicine before I force you to take it okay? It’s your choice because I’m fine with either one.”

Tim narrows his eyes at his brother and sends him a weak glare. He reluctantly opens his mouth up, he would fight more but he was feeling exhausted now, his body was still aching and his wrist was still hurting. Maybe the medicine will knock him out and give him a break from the pain.

Jason smiles at him, “Good choice Baby Bird,” and places the spoon in his mouth. Tim takes the liquid into his mouth and finds that it tastes like blackcurrant as he swallows it, thankfully it wasn’t disgusting.  

“One more Tim then we’re done and we’ll get your arm sorted out.” Jason tells him as he lifts the spoon back up to his lips. Tim takes it into his mouth with no trouble and swallows it.

While he waits for the medicine to kick in, Tim places his head against Dick’s chest once again and slowly begins to feel his eyes close as he relaxes into his older brother. Slowly the pain from his body disappears leaving Tim feeling numb and eventually he finds his eyes closing for longer periods of time until he couldn’t even open them up again.

* * *

Dick sighs in relief as Tim falls asleep in his arms but he sends Alfred a curious look. The elderly man answers the unasked question, “I may have put a light sedative in his medicine Master Dick but the poor lad mostly exhausted himself from crying and that allowed the sedative to easily take its course.”

Dick glances at the sleeping toddler in his arms, “He’s going to be okay though, right?”

“He will be Master Dick.” Alfred reassures him, the family butler potters around the med bay for a moment before coming back to the bed with an x-ray machine in his hands, “If you could place Master Tim on the bed then we’ll see what’s causing him so much distress.”

Dick does what he was asked but he doesn’t move away, even Jason comes up on the opposite side of the bed and watches the toddler with worry. They watch as Alfred sets up the machine and as he does an examination of Tim. Minutes tick by before Alfred moves away from the bed humming to himself.

“What is it Alf?” Jason asks him as the man goes over to the monitor on the wall.

“As I expected Master Jason, Master Tim is currently suffering from a buckle fracture on his radius bone in his right wrist.” Alfred informs them

Dick frowns at the sleeping form of his brother, “You sure Alfred, because that’s a pretty extreme reaction Tim had. I suffered from several buckle fractures when I was in the circus but I never had pain that Tim is apparently having from the injury.”

Alfred gives him a knowing smile, “But you are forgetting Master Dick, that Master Tim is in a delicate state right now. His body is not his own, his pain tolerance will be incredibly lower, and I believe that he fell down the stairs as this happened. A lot had happened for Master Tim to have this extreme reaction.”

Dick runs a hand through his hair and sighs, “I didn’t even think about that.” He glances at the butler before glancing at Jason before looking at Tim once again. A sudden thought occurs to him and he puts his focus on the brother opposite him, “Why was he left on his own anyway? Jason you were the last one to be with him so why was he own his own?”

Jason straightens up and sends him a glare, “Excuse you Dickhead but this happening was not my fault. I was with Tim in the library yes, but Harper called me and I had to go and take care of it. When I returned to the library about 15 minutes later Baby Bird was no longer in there and I spent the entire time looking for him until we found him at the bottom of the stair case crying his little heart out.”

Dick wants to argue back that Jason should have taken better care of Tim but he restrains himself, there’s no point in causing an argument, what’s done is done and now they deal with the consequences. Instead he turns to Alfred, “How can we help to treat him?”

Close to an hour later they have Tim all cleaned up and bandaged up. His wrist was now encased in a splint and the bruises he had gained from his flight down the stairs were covered in cream. Thankfully Tim stayed asleep the entire time they treated him.

Dick carefully picks up a still slumbering Tim and takes him into his arms, shifting the tiny body about until it was comfortable. With Jason following behind him, Dick makes the journey upstairs to the Manor and heads for Tim’s bedroom.

When he gets there he dresses Tim in his pyjama’s and tucks him into bed. After being sure that his little brother was going to be okay he steps out of the room and faces his younger yet taller brother. Jason glances at Tim’s form before looking at him, a small smirk appears on his face. “You can tell B and the clone what happened.”

Dick raises his eyebrows at his words, “Excuse me? I am not telling them anything, _you_ however can be the one to tell them both.”

Jason shakes his head, “You’re the oldest, you can tell them.”

“What? No way, you’re the one who was last responsible for Tim, you can tell them.”

“Yeah not happening Goldie.”

“How about you tell Conner and I’ll tell Bruce?” Dick tries to compromise.

“Or…” Jason drawls out, “We let Alfred deal with them both?”

Dick frowns at him, “We can’t let Alfred take the brunt of two over-protective people, that’s not fair to him.”

“I guess you’re right, but he’ll manage.”

“No. Why don’t we tell them both together? At least we know Bruce will be home later this evening and who knows when Conner will be back, he’s on a mission right now.”

Jason considers it for a moment before finally relenting, “Fine, we’ll do it together, that way both of our heads can be ripped off at the same time. Hey, who do you think will have the biggest reaction? Bruce or the clone?”

Dick thinks on it for a moment because that is a good question, “It’s hard to say. They’ll both freak out and demand to know what happened. With Bruce he’ll scold us, then lecture us about looking after our younger brother’s and then go brood for a bit before coming back and looking over Tim himself just to be sure that he’s alright. With Kon he’ll immediately panic before going and checking on Tim himself, once he’s satisfied that Tim is alright and not in any immediate danger he’ll come find us and have a go at us before returning back to Tim’s side.”

Jason stares at him for a while before nodding his head in agreement, “Okay that’s fair.” He’s then grinning at Dick, “This is going to be interesting.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can I just say this here - please don't have a go at me for any inaccuracy that may be involved with the medical side of things, I did try and do some research so I could write this chapter and that happened to be where the challenge was. Feel free to correct me if it's anything major, but hopefully it's all good and that I didn't do to bad of a job writing it. 
> 
> But I hope you enjoyed the chapter overall and stay tuned for the next update!


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kon returns from his mission and learns of the recent event that has happened at the Manor while he's been away.

When the Manor comes in to sight Kon sighs in relief, it’s been a long and hard 24 hours and he’s happy to be going to a place he’s knows if safe and secure, Kon was now just ready to relax and forget that the last 24 hours ever happened. He knows at some point soon however, that he’ll most likely give a brief report to Tim on what happened during the mission because he’ll want to know everything, but that won’t happen until after he’s eaten his own body weight in hot and delicious food, had a long hot shower and had at least 12 hours of sleep.  

When he reaches the Manor he debates on what way he should enter. It’s dark out now so it’s not like anyone will see him if he goes to the front door. He then remembers that he’s currently covered in dirt, dust, a little bit of blood and who knows what else because he hasn’t had the opportunity to clean up yet and he figures that Alfred won’t want dirt being traipsed around the Manor.

Kon turns around and decides to head for the cave entrance, he figures that’s his best option. As he swoops down to the entrance the Batmoblie comes speeding out of it. He blinks at it as it disappears down the road, well at least he won’t have to deal with Batman when he gets into the cave, that’s one less thing he doesn’t have to worry about.

He puts his own code in to get the entrance to once again open up (Tim had given him his own access code a few years ago, the only one who protested against it was Batman himself, but when Kon once came rushing into the cave carrying a bloody and beaten Tim he reluctantly changed his mind). In a matter of seconds Kon was flying his way towards the cave, a trip he now knows off by heart.

Once he reaches the end he slows down and puts his feet on the floor, he walks into the main area of the cave. That’s where he sees both Dick and Jason crammed at the main computer. They’re both mostly in their uniforms, Jason doesn’t have his helmet on and Kon can’t tell if Dick is wearing his domino mask or not. Kon scans the rest of the cave to see if he could see the others but there wasn’t any sign of them, no sign of Tim, no Damian, no Steph or Cass and not even Alfred.

He walks over to the two bats and stands a few feet away (out of striking distance, he learnt that one the hard way with Tim). “Hey guys.” He says out to them.

They both turn and glance at him before looking back at the computer, then it’s like they both do a double take because their heads both snap back in his direction. Dick’s straightening up (he’s not wearing a domino mask) and smiling at him, “Hey Kon.”

Kon frowns at the greeting because he doesn’t miss the tightness in the man’s tone, at the same time there’s sudden tension in the air. Kon may not be a detective but even he can tell that something is off with the two Bats in front of him.

“How was your mission, you were gone for quite a while.” Dick asks him, still smiling and with that same tone of voice.

Kon crosses his arms over his chest, “The mission was fine, was a success thankfully. How’s everything been here?”

That’s when he notices it, while Dick still looks relaxed as ever leaning against the computer desk Kon catches a slight twitch in his fingers. From experience in dealing with Tim, he knows that the twitch in the fingers is equivalent to tensing up, and now he wants to assume that it apparently runs through the family, but then again Tim may have picked up that habit just from Dick himself. Who knows.

Kon narrows his eyes, something’s happened and they’re reluctant to tell him. Must be to do with Tim. What on earth could have happened to Tim? Kon had left him with the fricken Batman! Unless he got sick, which is definitely something he could see happening.

“Kon?” Kon blinks and looks at Dick who is now frowning at him, “You okay?”

He shakes his head and sends the man an easy smile, “I’m fine, just tired after the mission. Hey, where’s Tim?”

He studies them and sees that twitch again. Okay so something happened to Tim, but what exactly? Kon tells himself to not freak out, if it was something major they would have contacted him, or he at least thinks they would.

“He’s upstairs clone. Alfred and the demon spawn are with him, last I knew they were in the library. Though you may want to go take a shower first, you look like shit.”

Kon turns his gaze to Jason before nodding to the man, “Yeah okay, thanks.”

He turns around and starts heading for the showers, though pretty soon after he turned around he heard someone get punched followed by some hissing of harsh words. Kon decides not to eavesdrop on them, one because that’s rude and two because it’s not his business even know he really wants to listen to their conversation.

After showering and changing into some civvies that Tim had stuffed in his own locker Kon heads back out to the cave feeling all nice and clean, though still tired and hungry but at least he’s now clean. Dick and Jason are no longer in the cave when he enters so he figures that they’ve now gone on patrol.

Kon makes his way to the stairs and starts climbing them, once at the top he goes through the door and starts making his way through the Manor to find his currently de-aged boyfriend. He heads for the library first because that’s where Jason said he could be. He gets to the room and reaches for the handle of the closed door, but before he could open it the door was opening on its own and to his surprise Damian was walking out of the room. He stops in his tracks when he spots Kon, the teen gives him a once over before settling with a glare, “About time you got back, I’m fed up with him. I am trained to be an assassin, not a baby sitter. All he has done is whine over the last hour, you are lucky I have not skewered him with my sword.”  Damian complains at him.

Kon frowns at the teen, “What? Why would he be whining?”

Damian gives him a look like he’s stupid, which isn’t anything new of course but Kon is loss at what could be wrong, “Because of the pathetic injury he has done to his arm.” The word ‘duh’ went unsaid but Kon could clearly hear it.

Kon feels his panic build up inside of him at the word injury, he gives Damian an alarmed look. “What!? What happened to his arm?”

The teen carries on giving him that ‘are you stupid’ look, “Did those morons not tell you? Tt, typical. Well, Drake has successfully proven that he incapable of looking after himself in that pathetic body of his, while left alone he somehow managed to fall down the stairs and give himself a buckle fracture in his right wrist on the radius bone. He’s been whining about the pain for most of the day.”

With that Damian pushes him out of the way and starts walking down the corridor, Kon just blinks after him taking in what he said. After a moment Kon gets his head together and quickly moves into the library to find Tim laying on the couch curled up in a blanket, a book lay next to him open but he wasn’t reading it as his eyes were closed and his head resting on a cushion.

Conner takes in Tim’s form, or at least what he could see of the toddler which was only his head that was above the blanket. From the first glance it didn’t look like he was injured but then Kon uses his x-ray to see through the blanket and that’s where he sees the injuries. There’s a splint covering his right wrist, there’s light bruising over his torso and some on both arms, looking further Kon can see the fracture in Tim’s arm. Kon feels guilt wash over him, now he knows what happened to Tim wasn’t his fault but it hurts to see his boyfriend injured, especially in this form.

He walks quietly over to Tim and gently runs a hand through his hair, as he does Tim’s eyes open and reveal two blue eyes which stare up at him. Kon crouches in front of him and offers him a soft smile, “Hey.”

Tim smiles back, “Hi.” His voice was quiet, “When did you get back?”

“Just now. You okay? Damian told me that you broke your arm falling down the stairs, how on earth did you manage that?”

Tim blinks at him for a moment before turning his head into the pillow. He speaks his answer but it was unintelligible, even to Kon who has super hearing.

Kon frowns, “What was that Tim?” Tim says it again but it’s still coming out muffled. Kon shakes his head, “I can’t understand you when you speak into the pillow. How did you manage to fall down the stairs?”

Tim finally lifts his head up and looks up at him, his blue eyes looking somewhat guilty, “I said I broke my arm because of Damian’s dumb dog. He took my staff so I ran after him and I couldn’t stop myself because of this stupid body so I fell down the stairs.”

Kon tries to not let the worry or panic take over him at the thought and image of Tim falling down the stairs.

In front of him Tim shifts, the movement causes him to whimper which has Kon’s eyes widening in panic, “You okay? Is it your arm? Do you need medicine?” Okay so maybe Kon wasn’t doing that good of a good at hiding his concern, but it’s incredibly hard when Tim whimpers in pain like that.

Staying on his side Tim looks up at Kon with pained filled eyes, “It hurts, that’s all. This body does not have a high pain tolerance at all and it sucks.”

Kon strokes Tim’s head lightly again, “What medicine do you have that I can give you?”

Tim shakes his head and then leans into the touches that Kon’s offering, “Alfred’s gone to get the medicine I need.”

As if summoned, the elderly man walks into the room carrying a small plastic spoon in one hand and a small bottle in the other. He doesn’t seemed at all fazed with the sight of Conner crouched at the sofa, “Ah Master Conner, it’s good to see you. I hope that your mission went well?”

Kon smiles at the man, “Yeah it went well thanks Alfred.” He points to the items in the man’s hand, “Is that Tim’s medicine?”

Alfred nods, “That it is, would you like to give it to him?”

Kon smiles at him and stands up, he takes the items from the man’s hands and crouches in front of Tim once again. Being as gentle as he can he picks Tim up and puts him in a sitting position against the back of the sofa, Tim makes a tiny sound as his arm is moved but that’s all.

Glancing back at Alfred Conner asks, “How much do I give him?”

“Just two spoons will be enough Master Conner.”

Kon nods and undoes the cap to the medicine, he pours out a spoon full watching as purple liquid fills up the plastic base. Once full he holds it out by Tim’s mouth for him to swallow.

He watches as Tim eyes the spoon in front of him before moving his eyes over to Alfred, “Is this the sedative one?”

“It only has a light sedative Master Tim, it’ll help you to go to sleep without the discomfort that your arm has been causing you throughout the day.” Alfred sounds exasperated, almost like he’s been through this conversation with Tim already that day.

Kon watches Tim pout and as he carries on eyeing the spoon in front of him. Kon smiles as he gets an idea, not wanting to waste the opportunity he pulls the spoon back and starts to make train noises as he brings the spoon close to Tim’s mouth again, “Here comes the train!” He says chirpily. “Choo-choo!”

Tim gives him an unimpressed look but he does open his mouth and takes the medicine. As he swallows it Kon refills the spoon and does the action again. Once done Tim glares at him, “I can’t believe you.”

Kon shrugs not bothered by it. A sudden flash crosses his mind as he imagines himself doing that to his own kids in the future if they’re unwell. He’d make stupid noises that would make the kid smile and open their mouth so Kon could give them their medicine, he’d most likely do train noises and aeroplane noises.

He’s brought out of his head when Tim yawns in front of him. “Master Conner, would you be so kind as to take Master Tim to bed, it is rather late and a young boy like that certainly he needs his sleep.”

Kon turns and gives Alfred a grin, “Of course,” he then turns to Tim and gets up to his feet, “Come on Timmy, let’s go to bed.”

Tim doesn’t say anything as Conner bends down and picks him up, blanket and all. He doesn’t say anything really and that concerns Kon, but his worry melts away when he feels Tim’s head fall onto his shoulder and as tiny breaths tickle his neck. Kon can’t help but smile as Tim falls asleep on him on the way up to his bedroom.

Getting to Tim’s bedroom Kon places the toddler down on the bed. He doesn’t have to change Tim at all because he’s already in his pyjamas, all he has to do is pull the covers over his tiny body and make sure he’s all comfortable and settled. He also places pillows along the edge of the bed that isn’t against the wall just to be sure that Tim won’t roll off the bed.

When all that was Kon can’t help himself but press a light kiss to Tim’s forehead. The action giving him those domestic vibes again as he can imagine him and Tim doing it to their own kids one day in the future.

Kon pulls away from Tim and heads out of the room, before closing the door he gives him a once again just to make sure everything was alright before leaving. Leaving the room Kon suddenly remembers his list of things that he was going to do when he got in, if he remembers correctly eating a ton of food was on there. The whole ordeal of learning that Tim had accidently injured himself and caused himself to get a broken arm distracted him from his hunger.

Kon heads down to the kitchen trying to decide what he wants to eat. When he gets there he finds Alfred there preparing sandwiches and hot chocolate. After patrol snacks. He remembers Tim telling him that Alfred’s after patrol snacks are sometimes a life saver, especially after a long and tiring patrol, it was just nice to come back and have something light and heartening.

He goes over to the elder and stands next to him for a minute watching him work. His delicate hands moving in precise and practiced motions, it reminds him of watching Ma prepare food. After a few moments he opens his mouth to ask Alfred something but the man beats him to the punch, “I’ve put aside some snacks for you Master Conner if you wish to have them. If you wanted a warm meal instead I’d be happy to whip up something.”

Conner looks wide eyed at the butler as the man hands him a plate of sandwiches and a hot chocolate. “Wow.” He fumbles over on what to say. “Thanks Alfred. I didn’t expect you to do me anything, I would have made myself something.”

“Nonsense lad. Is that alright or would you like something more filling, you must be hungry after your latest mission.”

Kon gapes at the man, completely in awe with him. Alfred is a legend. No wonder the Bats are alive and still mostly functioning with this man around. Kon looks down at the plate in his hands before looking at Alfred again, “No this perfectly fine Alfred, thank you.” He didn’t want to cause the man any more hassle by making him cook something, but the sandwiches do look good.

“Very well, enjoy sir.”

Alfred finishes up and takes the plate down to the cave, leaving Kon alone in the kitchen. Kon moves over to the table and settles down in one of the chairs. From there he robotically eats the food in front of him, enjoying the way it tastes and fills his stomach up.

Kon was just finishing up his hot chocolate when both Dick and Jason appear in the kitchen with empty dishes in their hands. Both were dressed in sweats and t-shirts and Kon silently watches them as they clean and put away the dishes. It was when they were just finishing up that Kon asks the question that had been on his mind, “How come you guys didn’t tell me Tim was injured? Also, how the hell did he even get injured? I left him with Bruce!” Kon couldn’t help the rise in his voice at the end.

The two bats share a look before sitting down at the table opposite Kon. Neither of them didn’t say anything to him and Kon felt his patience growing thinner, “Why didn’t you tell me he was injured?” He demands of them now, “I have the right to know if he’s hurt or not.”

Neither of the Bats still didn’t say anything and Kon resists the urge to violently shake them to get an answer out of them. God, no wonder Tim could be so infuriating to get an answer out of if these were his relatives. Using exaggerated hand gestures Kon says, “I leave him with you guys for a day, _one day,_ and he gets injured! You’re supposed to be the greatest non-powered humans of all times and you let a four-year-old kid, who happens to be your brother, get injured by falling down the stairs! Why was he even left alone?”

Of course Kon was aware that he was having ago at the Bat family, the exact family that happens to have the one of the few things in the world that could fatally hurt him in their basement, but Tim got hurt! He wants answers to why that happened when they were supposed to be looking after him.

In front of him Jason slaps the table and levels him with a glare, “Hey! I’d watch that trap of yours clone. At least we’re not the ones who allowed him to get kidnapped by Ra’s Al Ghul.”

Kon snaps his head in Jason direction and levels him with a glare of his own. Jason really struck a nerve with Kon then, because that was not his fault. He opens his mouth to retort back however before he could Dick was standing up and holding a hand out to each of them, “Woah okay! Let’s hold the horses there. Tim getting kidnapped and injured was nobody’s fault so let’s not go around and accuse people of it.” He gives a pointed look to each of them before continuing, “Conner, we’re sorry that we didn’t tell you immediately, we just had other things on our minds and honestly we had no idea on how you would react to the news that Tim was injured.”

Kon frowns at Dick, “What’s that supposed to mean? Dick I have the right to know if Tim is injured or not.”

Dick gives him a sympathetic look, “Of course you do, we just didn’t think it through that’s all.”

Next to him Jason snorts, “We? There is no we Dickhead, that was all on you.”

Dick turns his attention onto his brother, “Uh correction, it was both of us, you’re just as much to blame as I am.”

Jason rolls his eyes, “Whatever,” he then looks back at Kon, “Yeah we didn’t know how you would react because you are such an overprotective mother hen that it’s actually sickening. You’re as bad as Dick sometimes.”

Kon stutters and feels himself go hot, “I do not! I’m not a mother hen! I just care about him and his wellbeing! There’s nothing wrong with that.”

Jason barks out a laugh, “Yeah alright, keep telling yourself that.”

“Anyway, Kon,” Dick jumps in now getting his attention, “We’re sorry we didn’t tell you straight away and don’t worry Bruce has already ripped our heads off for letting Tim get injured. He was not happy at all.”

“What happened?” Kon asks curiously.

“Right, so the same day you left he had a meeting at WE at 3 so he had to leave Tim here. He left Tim with Jason in the library but then Jason got a call from Roy asking for help so Jason had to go and help him out therefore he left Tim alone in the library-”

“In my defence I thought he was just going to stay there until I got back. I was only gone for like 15 minutes.”

“ _Anyway_ , Tim then went to his room where he was playing with his staff and Titus went into his room and stole said staff and ran away with it. Of course Tim couldn’t let him go so he chased Titus. Then something happened which we’re not sure about yet and we found Tim crying his eyes out at the bottom of the stairs. He fractured his arm falling down them. We took him to the cave to take care of him and here we are a day later.”

Conner blinks at him for several moments taking in what he had been told. Well at least he knows the story of how Tim ended up injured, though he’s going to have to talk to Tim about it anyway because Tim should have known better than to be on his own or even to run through the hallways.

He glances between the two of them, “What happened with Bruce? If he wasn’t there with Tim what was his reaction to finding out that Tim was injured?”

“Kind of what we expected really. He gave us both the evil eye before going to find Tim and make sure he was okay himself, once satisfied he went and found Alfred to get the details on his condition. Once updated he came and found us then gave us a right chewing out for not looking after him properly and then he made us feel slightly bad by saying that something worse could have happened to Tim when we weren’t looking and how we should have been paying attention to him all along.” Dick shrugs at the end of his explanation like the whole thing didn’t faze him at all.

“Right…” Kon drawls out after a moment. He looks at the two Bats as they stare back, and all of a sudden it got extremely awkward. Kon adverted his eyes away from the men in front of him to look down at his now empty cup.

To try and ignore the sudden awkwardness in the atmosphere Kon gets up and clears his dishes just like he’d seen Jason and Dick do moments before. Once that was done he stands around awkwardly for a minute before announcing he’s turning in for the night. Sharing a good night with each other Conner leaves the kitchen and heads for Tim’s room, he’s more than happy to be out of there, the silence was really starting to get to him.

He gets to Tim’s room and quietly goes about getting himself changed into some pyjamas. Once ready for bed he carefully climbs in behind Tim on the mattress while trying his best to not disturb the sleeping toddler. Once settled he lets himself relax into the soft mattress and instantly feels himself starting to drift off to sleep.

* * *

To Kon the next few days just fly by. Most of his time was spent making sure that Tim was okay and was comfortable. His arm was giving him a bit of grief but besides that he seems alright for the most part.

The Bats went about their routines as normal though Kon did see a lot more of Bruce. Whenever he was at the Manor he often stopped by wherever he and Tim were to check in on his son to see how he was doing. Kon certainly saw the daddy bats protectiveness side come out over the past few days. He recalls one time when he, Bruce, Alfred and Tim were having lunch together in the kitchen that both he and Bruce made a move towards Tim when the current toddler let out a pained whimper because he hit his arm on the table. They both froze in mid movement when they noticed the other had also moved. Kon was caught so off guard with the whole situation and then he couldn’t even look at Bruce for several hours afterwards because of how awkward it was. He even went as far as going to the farm for a for hours just to get away from the Manor.

Currently it was lunch time four days after Tim had fractured his arm and Tim had gone for a nap. Kon didn’t mind of course, the more sleep he can get the better because at least being in this four-year-old body Tim can’t force himself to go days without sleep or something to eat. Kon will feed him something after he wakes up.

At this moment it’s him, Jason, Dick and Damian all around the kitchen table having a bite to eat.  It’s silent but Kon was quite content where he was. The brothers weren’t arguing (for once) and they had the TV on showing the local news while they ate.

As Kon takes another bite out of his sandwich light footsteps get his attention. Tuning out the sound of the news he listens for the footsteps as they grow closer to the kitchen. They weren’t heavy steps to indicate shoes being worn or an adult coming towards the kitchen.

Kon cranes his head around to look at the kitchen doorway as the steps stop just outside of the entrance, like they were hesitant to continue in. A few seconds go by and the feet start moving again. This is where Kon now can see who the steps belong to as they enter the kitchen, Kon lets out a sigh as it’s just Tim.

He watches as Tim comes into the kitchen and looks around the place like he’s never seen it before. Kon takes notes of how his shoulders are slightly hunched up and as his hands are pressed to his chest like he’s scared.

Kon starts to frown as he watches Tim scan the kitchen. There’s something off about him but what?

That’s when Tim turns in his direction and spots him. Tim physically jumps at the sight of him and shrinks in on himself, his blue eyes go wide in fear and he takes a few steps back.

“Tim?” Kon says looking at the toddler. Tim jumps again at the sound of his name. Around him Kon is vaguely aware that the Bats are aware of Tim’s presence in the kitchen, they must have also caught on that something wasn’t right with their current de-aged brother. “Tim is everything okay?” Kon questions him carefully.

Tim carries on looking at him with wide eyes and Kon catches Tim looking over at the others in the kitchen with him.

Standing there looking terrified Tim finally says something, “Where am I? I – I don’t know where I am?”

It’s impossible to miss the change in Tim’s voice as well as the change in his posture. While it’s still high pitched and held that childish innocence, it was missing that edge that Tim normally had with it. This time it was completely childish. Kon couldn’t really explain it, but he just knows that isn’t Tim’s normal voice.

He looks at the others to find them wearing a frown or a confused expression as they look over at Tim by the kitchen door.

After a moment Jason barks out a laugh, “Ha! Nice one Timbo, you really had us going there.”

Kon raises an eyebrow that Jason’s exclamation. He looks back over at Tim to find that he seems even more frightened than before, Kon also notes that he’s slowly stepping back towards the door as if he’s going to run out of the room.

Kon glances at Dick to find him wearing a similar look to what Tim normally wears when he’s trying to work out situation on the field and what’s the best plan to making sure they all stay alive. The look wasn’t exactly a positive thing.

Kon looks back at Tim when he starts to speak again and he feels his heart drop.

“I don’t know who you are.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter turned out a lot longer than I planned for it to. I know that some of you were probably hoping to read Bruce's POV of finding out that Tim was injured, the only reason I didn't write it was because I mainly wanted to write Kon's POV but to make up for I did include a little bit about his reaction in the chapter but sorry if you are disappointed that you didn't get to read it. 
> 
> Hope you all enjoyed that ending of this chapter haha! and stay tuned for the next update :)


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kon and the Bats try to get their heads wrapped around the new situation that's just developed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we are again with an update that's long over due. Sorry about that. I've been busy doing a variety of other stuff, particularly focusing on Whumptober over on tumblr. 
> 
> I want to give a shout out to wolferetic who has done some [amazing fan art](https://awhitehead17.tumblr.com/post/178737155286/wolferetic-little-angry-deaged-tim-from) for this story, please go check that out and again thank you so much for doing that, I love it!
> 
> In this chapter there are hints towards child neglection, just thought I'd put that out there.

“I don’t know who any of you are.”

With that one sentence everyone was stunned into silence, all of them completely unprepared for it. Any contentment Kon had been feeling just a moment a go has now disappeared and was replaced with dread and fear. He adverts his eyes from the tiny form over to the Bats at the table. They each have dumb folded expressions which do nothing to help ease Kon, if they’re all caught off guard then how the hell is he supposed to feel.

They all continue to stare at one another having no idea what to do. It wasn’t until Damian said something about it being two weeks since Tim’s been de-aged and how this would have happened eventually because they had in fact been warned about it, that it all clicks. Kon feels himself going into panic mode, it had completely slipped his mind that Tim’s mind would get de-aged as well. They haven’t had the chance to talk about it, or he hasn’t spoken to the Bats about what they’re going to tell mind-reverted Tim. Since Tim is now officially his four-year-old self does that mean his Tim is gone for good until he changes back?

Kon’s brought out of his thoughts when the high-pitched voice was speaking again, “Where’s my mom or dad? I want my parents!”

Kon feels his heart ache for the four-year-old. He sounds so scared.

Seeming to finally get a hold of himself Dick gets up from the table and starts heading towards Tim. Kon watches as the man crouches down low and as he addresses him.

“Hey buddy, I know you’re probably scared right now but it’s okay, you’re safe.” He speaks softly to the child as he approaches him.

Tim only takes a step back as Dick gets closer, “I don’t know you.”

“Not – not really bud. But we’re your neighbours. You know Bruce Wayne?”

Kon doesn’t miss Dick’s slight stutter, it must have hurt to hear those words from Tim’s mouth, it certainly hurt Kon at least. But with the true professionalism of a Bat Dick carries on talking to Tim like nothing’s wrong.

Tim looks uncertain as he watches Dick inch closer, “Mister Wayne? Am I in his home?”

“Yeah that’s exactly where you are. You’re not far from home, I promise.” Dick stops moving when he’s a couple feet away from Tim.

From where he was standing Tim frowns, “Am I allowed to be here?”

At the table Damian grabs their attention by quietly speaking up, “Father’s on his way home. I’ve updated him with the situation, he’ll be about 20 to 30 minutes.”

Kon turns back to Dick and Tim to see Dick nodding at Tim, “Of course you’re allowed bud. You’re always welcome here. What’s the last thing you remember?”

Tim looks uncomfortable standing in front of Dick, he picks at the splint on his arm (god Kon hadn’t even thought about that, they’re going to have to come up with a story to explain the kid’s broken arm) and looks in the direction of the kitchen door, clearly looking for an escape. He doesn’t bolt however, instead he looks at Dick and says, “Mom and dad were getting ready for another trip. They were packing last night, leaving in the morning.”

Dick doesn’t respond to Tim straight away instead he glances back at the table and makes a hand gesture to them. Kon recognises it from where Tim’s used it in the past, mostly on missions with the Titans, _play along._ Dick has a plan and he wants them to follow. He looks at the two others, Jason’s staring at the scene with interest and Damian is on his phone getting ready to type or record or something, maybe he’s going to update Bruce as it goes along.

“Okay, well you may not remember it but last night your mommy and daddy left earlier than they planned to and because of that they asked us to look after you while they’re away.”

“Why? I have a nanny who comes around. I’m a big boy I can look after myself!” Tim straightens up with that last sentence. While it’s cute, it holds a lot of sadness to it. No four-year-old should be left alone to look after themselves, it’s just wrong.

“Well your nanny’s just taking some time off at the moment, so we said that we’ll fill in for her instead. I can promise you now that you’ll really like it here. We can play games, watch TV, bake cookies and read stories.”

Tim now looks conflicted, like he really likes the idea of being here but there’s something nagging him that’s stopping him from accepting it. “What happened to my arm?” He holds his arm up in front of Dick to show him the splint like he hadn’t already seen it.

“You hurt your wrist by falling over the other day. It’s okay though, in a few weeks time it’ll be all better.”

“But I don’t remember doing it.”

“You were in a lot of pain when it happened and sometimes when people are in a lot of pain they often don’t remember things. That’s all that’s happened to you, you can’t remember how you hurt your arm because you were in pain. Don’t worry though, it’ll all be better soon enough.”

Tim makes a face that shows he isn’t convinced at Dick’s explanation, Kon couldn’t help but crack a smile at it, even as a small child Tim still sees behind things than what they really were. Thankfully he doesn’t ask anymore questions about it.

“You hungry Timmy? How about I make you a sandwich?” Dick asks standing up straight now that it appears that Tim is relaxed enough around them without panicking too much.

“My name is Timothy.” Tim says frowning at Dick.

Dick looks down at him, “Well ‘Timmy’ is just another name I can call you by. I can call you Timothy if you prefer that?”

Tim blinks up at him for a moment before he’s shrugging his shoulders, “Mom and dad only ever call me Timothy unless we are at a party, I get called Tim.”

Dick beams at him, “Well now you’ve said that I’ll call you nothing but Timmy from now on. Anyway, how about a sandwich? Do you like PB and J?”

Tim’s face lightens up at hearing that and he’s nodding enthusiastically, “Yes please!” There’s a pause then as if Tim caught himself doing something he shouldn’t be, his face falls and he looks a little sheepish, “Is that okay?”

Dick looks back at him from where he’s gone over to the counter, “Timmy it’s fine. I’m going to make myself one anyway.”

He makes quick work of making the sandwiches. Once done he carries two plates over to the table where the others were sat. Dick places a plate in his place before placing the other plate next to his, he moves around and drags a chair to where he’s placed the second plate. Dick looks down at Tim and motions to the chair, “Can you get up by yourself kiddo, or do you want help?”

Tim shakes his head and goes towards the chair, “I can do it thank you.” Dick backs off but hovers around just in case something happens.

Somehow Tim’s able to pull himself up onto the chair and sets himself upright. Dick gently pushes the chair in a bit and moves to sit back down. Kon watches as Tim eyes up the sandwich in front of him and he couldn’t help but smile at his face as it lights up at seeing the treat. It’s when Tim reaches the sandwich that he seems to remember that there are other people in the room. His hand freezes just above the food as he looks wide eyed at each of them, Kon takes note that he doesn’t seem as scared as before, his look is now full of curiosity.

Dick recognises this, “Oh yeah, my name is Dick and these Timmy are my brothers, Damian and Jason,” he gestures to each one as he says their name, Jason gives him a tight smile and Damian ignores them in favour for his phone, “and this is Conner, a family friend.” Conner gives a small smile and a wave of his hand. He feels slightly offended to be deemed as a ‘family friend’, but he knows it’s for the best, how the hell were they supposed to explain that Conner is actually his older self’s boyfriend. Yeah, it’s just easier being ‘family friend’.

Tim smiles at them, “Nice to meet you.”

Tim’s polite greeting has a few faces being made, Tim thankfully misses them as he’s now invested in his sandwich. It seems wrong for a four-year-old to be so formal and polite. He shares a look with Jason who simply shrugs at him, Dick was watching Tim with a small smile as the toddler eats his food as best as he can without getting it smeared over his face and hands. Kon has to admit the sight was adorable.

They all sit in silence as they each finish eating their meals. Tim fails his task of keeping his hands clean as he eats, by the final square of his sandwich (Dick had cut it into four squares) his fingers were somehow covered in the sandwich’s fillings.

Kon’s attention was drawn away from Tim when he once again hears footsteps within the Manor. He looks at the door way right up until Bruce walks through into the kitchen. The man stops short when he spots them all gathered at the table, taking in the scene before he does anything.

“Hello father.” Damian greets him once he spots Bruce in the kitchen, that prompts the others to turn around and look at him.

“Hi Bruce!” Dick says cheerfully.

Bruce continues to stare at them, “Boys.”

Kon watches as Dick and Bruce do that thing where they have a silent conversation with each other. He also notices that Tim has significantly stiffened up from where he was sat. With his sandwich in hand Tim stares over at Bruce, that look of fear was back on his face.

Seeming to be done with their silent conversation Bruce looks at Tim and smiles at the toddler, while it’s kind of creepy to Kon to see Bruce smiling he knows that it makes him seem less threatening to kids and in this instance, Tim. Bruce walks over and crouches down by Tim’s chair, “Hi Tim,” he says softly still smiling, “Do you know who I am?”

Tim drops the sandwich he was holding and blinks at the man before slowly nodding, “You’re Mister Wayne.”

“Yeah that’s right, now do you understand why you’re staying with my family?”

Again Tim nods in answer, “You’re looking after me while my parents are away.”

“That’s correct.”

“But you don’t have to!” Tim blurts out suddenly. “I don’t want to be any trouble for you!”

Bruce’s smiles falters a bit before he picks it back up, “Tim I promise it’s no trouble you being here at all. We want you here or else you wouldn’t be here and it already looks like you’ve made friends with the others, it’d be a shame to take you away from them.”

Tim looks away from Bruce and glances around the table at each of them. He looks back at Bruce, “Are you sure? I can look after myself. I don’t want to be any trouble.”

Kon feels his heart beat heavily in his chest, Tim sounded so distraught that he was going to be so much trouble to look after. Now Kon knows this isn’t the first time Tim’s said or felt like it but actually hearing it from his mind regressed self just hurts. It shows that Tim’s feelings of being a ‘burden’ runs way back to when he was little rather than just in recent years.

Bruce is also apparently affected by this because he’s frowning at Tim, “Tim you’re not causing any trouble by being here. If you’re uncomfortable being here I can arrange something for you so you’re not here but not alone. Would prefer that?”

Tim looks away from Bruce and down at his hands, a frown appearing on his tiny face showing his conflicted emotions. After a moment he quietly speaks up in a whisper, “I don’t want to be alone.”

Kon’s chest aches at the sadness he hears in Tim’s voice. Opposite him Bruce puts on a small smile to reassure him, “It’s okay, you won’t be alone here. We’ll make sure that you will always have company.”

Bruce’s attempts at reassurance don’t do anything to ease Tim, he still looks sad but now confused, “Don’t you have work Mister Wayne? You have a company to run.”

The man opens his mouth to respond to him, however Jason was speaking up from where he was sat, “Hey Timmy,” he says, the toddler looks over at him wide eyed, “Do you like to read books?” Tim seems hesitant but he’s eventually nodding his head. Jason grins at him, “Great! Would you like to go with me to our library? We have a whole variety of books, I bet we can find something you’ll like.”

Jason doesn’t wait for a response, he gets up from his chair and walks around so he’s near Tim’s chair. He holds out his hand and jerks his head towards the door, “Come on, I’ll take you there.”

Once again Tim seems hesitant, but then he’s slowly getting off the chair as Bruce stands up and gets out of the way. Once standing Tim reaches out to take Jason’s hand but he catches sight of his still covered fingers. He holds them up for Jason to see, “My fingers are sticky.” He states.

Jason looks like he’s one step away from cracking up with laughter. He gets a hold of himself and says, “That’s okay, we’ll just go and get you cleaned up before going to the library.” Again he doesn’t wait for Tim to respond before guiding him out of the kitchen. He gently nudges Tim out of the door and turns back to the rest of the room’s occupants to give them all a pointed glare before finally leaving the kitchen.

After his departure it stays silent for a few beats until Dick’s speaking up to Bruce, “What we going to do? Tim seems to be in a really delicate state right now. We gotta keep up this lie, that means keeping him away from any news or anything that has the year on it. Tim’s smart, if we’re not careful he’s going to catch on and panic.”

Bruce stays quiet for a moment, probably thinking it through, until he grunts his answer, “I know. What we are going to do is keep up this lie as long as it takes. I still haven’t heard back from the league about Zatanna's return so we’ll just have to play this out. Make sure he’s never alone, make sure he always feels welcome and try to keep him distracted for as long as possible.”

“Probably won’t be easy.” Dick comments.

Kon couldn’t help but agree. Tim is a curious creature by nature, it’ll take all of them to keep the lie going. He doesn’t like the idea of faking it all to Tim but he knows it’s the best option for everyone right now. He’ll do what he can to help out but right now he’s more than grateful that the Bats are involved because he knows that he wouldn’t have a fucking clue on what to do if this happened when it was just him and Tim. Thank god for small miracles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just want to say a couple of things, I have been constantly thinking about how four-year-old Tim will be acting for this story. I'm going with the classic trope of Tim being neglected by his parents at a young age, but also I feel like his parents would force him to speak properly, (even at that young) so that's why Tim's got good grammar, though I am trying to get across that childishness to it as well. It is difficult but I am trying to do it so I apologise if it's a complete disaster, hopefully it's not and fingers crossed it gets better with future chapters. 
> 
> Anyway, thank you for reading and sticking through this mess with me, all kudos and comments are very appreciated. Stay tuned for the next update!


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A variety of interactions with four year old Tim.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just want to say that this chapter doesn't really have a plot to it, it's more or less a filler chapter. It's different members of the family spending time with Tim as his tiny four year old self. I just wanted to write them all interacting with Tim as a kid and it actually was a lot of fun to write, also it turned out way longer than I expected it too. 
> 
> Again, thank you to everyone who has left a comment or a kudo, it means so much to know people like what I'm writing here. Anyway... I hope you all enjoy the chapter! :D

It took a bit of time adjusting to Tim being his four-year-old self (or Timmy as they call him rather than Tim) and as much as Kon loves him, his chest does ache slightly knowing that his Tim is no longer around for the time being. He misses him.

Days following Tim’s mind regression Kon and the Bats have been busy trying to keep Tim distracted. They keep him away from any gadgets with the date on them, any news reports on the TV, away from any news papers and they certainly don’t talk about hero work around him.

They’ve come to learn that Timmy isn’t a bad child (not that they expected him to be). He was quiet, shy and well behaved. At first he was too shy to even talk to them, he’d just silently go along with whoever was on babysitting duty and do whatever activity they had planned with no complaints. The only time he really spoke to them was when they decided to do something that Tim’s parent’s wouldn’t apparently like, Timmy would say that he wasn’t allowed to do it or else he’d be punished for it, that’s when they had to step in and reassure him that he won’t get in trouble for having fun or getting a little messy.

It wasn’t until Timmy started to get to know them that he came out of his shell a little. Three days have gone by now and he’s appearing more confident around them which was a good thing, but on the other hand it was causing Kon and the Bats more trouble. Timmy was becoming bold enough to ask them a variety of questions like; Where’s mom and dad? When will they be back? Why do they care about him as he’s fine on his own? Why does his arm hurt? What happened to his arm? Do they like Batman? Have they seen Batman at all?

That last one really threw them all a curve ball. They told Timmy that Batman was still in fact around and no they haven’t seen him personally. They even dug up old newspapers containing Batman articles for Timmy to look at (of course after they’ve removed the date off it). That seemed to deter Tim for the time being but the look he was giving them all made it clear that he didn’t believe what they were saying, he had been wearing a look that said ‘adults are stupid’. Timmy was too smart for his own good, even at the ripe age of four.

While Timmy is an easy child to look after, it wasn’t all lollipops and rainbows. Timmy was in fact a still traumatized kid. He remembers the deaths of Mary and John Grayson. A couple of times when Timmy had gone down for a nap he’s woken up screaming and crying because he could remember the rope snapping, the bodies hitting the floor and the screams of everyone around him. It’s left him petrified. Thankfully he was surrounded by those who knew (to a certain extent, with the Bats it really could be debatable) how to cope with fear and traumatized experiences. They helped Timmy out where they could and thankfully it worked every time.

Besides the occasional nightmare they had to deal with, they also had to deal with Timmy’s big brain. As it was pointed out earlier, Timmy’s a smart kid, too smart for his own good. It’s easy to notice that Timmy clearly thinks something is up. Besides the ‘adults are stupid’ look when they hand him newspapers he’s also been giving both Bruce and Dick funny looks, like he recognises them or knows that they shouldn’t be as old as they are. The one-time Timmy did actually question them on it, Dick was able to laugh the question off and redirect Tim’s mind with the power of cookies (who knew even Timmy couldn’t resist Alfred’s cookies).

The only time Timmy really misbehaves is when it comes to his arm. They often catch him trying to take off the splint that’s wrapped around his injury or when he refuses to take the medicine. They always have to tell him that it’s for his own good and how it’ll help him get better. Of course they couldn’t really blame him for misbehaving in that area, they’re all aware that kids would complain about the pain and discomfort that a fractured arm comes with. They just try to explain to him every time that it can’t really be helped and the only way they _can_ help is by giving him medicine and him leaving the splint on.

Somehow during those days that followed Tim’s mind regression, Kon had managed to find out that Timmy likes to play cards. Upon finding this out he hunts down a pack of cards and does intensive research on kid card games that he could teach Timmy. Now when it’s his turn to babysit Timmy he plays a variety of card games with the toddler.

At first he started with the simple games, like snap and higher or lower, but Timmy seemed to quickly grow bored of them and asked Kon to teach him something more complicated. Kon decided to try and teach him goldfish after that. To his surprise Tim had managed to just about get the hang of it, they even called Jason and Dick in for a few games at one point. Yet again Timmy seemed to grow bored of that and asked to learn something new, so Kon decided to try clock patience. That only lasted for about half an hour or so until he grew bored of it.

This time Kon was teaching Tim solitaire. He knows this is probably way out of Tim’s level but he’s there to help him through it, plus Tim’s a smart kid, he’ll probably pick it up. They play a couple of games of it, mostly so Kon could show Tim how it was done, then they moved onto Tim doing it himself. As Kon predicted this one was harder for Tim to understand but the toddler was determined to do it and every time Kon offered any advice or goes to help him, Timmy snaps at him causing Kon to reel back.

After a while Timmy makes an angry sound and crosses his over his chest. He looks up at Kon with an adorable pout on his face, “I don’t like this one.” He says with a huff.

Kon has to really stop himself from bursting out laughing at his expression. It reminds him of a cute angry elf or something. “You don’t have to play it if you don’t like it Timmy.” He tells him.

Timmy carries on pouting. Guessing that he’s done with cards for today Kon reaches over and starts to pack them up. Once all the cards were in his hand he gets an idea, an evil idea and he really wants to see if Timmy will fall for it.

“Hey Timmy, how about I teach you one more game before I put these away?”

Timmy looks at him, he’s still pouting but there’s curiosity in his eyes now. He nods slightly giving Kon the go ahead.

Kon smiles softly, “It’s a game called 52 card pick up. Do you want to play it?”

Timmy uncrosses his arms and nods again and now Kon’s grinning. With one movement he chucks the cards onto the floor making sure that they all spread out everywhere. The look on Timmy’s face was priceless and Kon couldn’t help but laugh. “What you have to do is pick up all the cards!” He somehow gets out between breaths.

The look on Timmy’s face makes him wish he had recorded it. It’s the look of astonishment and betrayal. He quickly goes back to pouting once he realised that he had been played, “That’s not funny.” Timmy says grumpily.

Kon cracks up even more at that. God he couldn’t believe he fell for it, he could not wait to tell Tim what had happened once he was back.

After a minute or so Timmy gets up and actually starts to collect the cards from the floor. Kon figures he should help because after all he’s the one that made the mess, but as fits of giggles still escape him all he does is get his phone out and starts to record Timmy picking up all the cards. He carries on recording right through until he was done and was beginning to sort them out into piles of each suit in number order.

He could not wait for Tim to see this. This was precious!

* * *

Usually during the times when Dick babysits Timmy, he normally ends up having a nap. He believes that it’s not intentional, he just guesses that the films they watch together make him sleepy (that wasn’t a bad thing as kids often need naps to re-energize themselves).

What Dick does is set up a little nest in the media room for them, he spreads out blankets and pillows on the couch, grabs a few light snacks and drinks and places the items on the coffee table in front of them. He lines up a lot of kids movies on Netflix for him and Timmy to watch together. (Dick made sure to load the film up before Tim could see it just so he doesn’t see the date).

At first Timmy was against the idea, he said that his parents didn’t like him watching those type of films as they weren’t educational enough and were a waste of time (he didn’t say those exact words but that’s what he meant). It took a bit of convincing on Dick’s part to get Timmy to sit down and watch one with him, luckily he succeeds and Timmy seems to really enjoy it so he carries on doing it.

Watching movies with Timmy have made him realise about how touched starved the kid actually is. The first time Dick went to cuddle him, Timmy immediately stiffened up so he’s mimicking a plank board. He had a look on his face like he couldn’t understand what Dick was doing but was too scared to ask him about it. That time Dick let him go, he was clearly uncomfortable and didn’t want it. Dick tried to not let it get to him but it was hard because what kind of parent doesn’t at least hug their kid?

The second time he asked Timmy if he could hug him. Dick was aware that Timmy was reluctant to agree to it, clearly not liking the physical contact, but Dick over looks it and gently cuddles him on his lap. As the movie went on Timmy seemed to relax in Dick’s hold and by the end of the film he was out cold curled up in Dick’s arms.

After that he didn’t seem to mind it as much, only if Dick gave him a warning and as long as he was gentle. He would quietly curl up on his lap and surround himself with a blanket like a burrito and contently watch whatever film was playing. Seeing Timmy like this made Dick feel more at ease and that allowed him to relax easier, knowing Timmy was happy made him happy.

The touching wasn’t the only thing that was bothering Timmy. Dick could tell because when the kid thought he wasn’t looking, he would stare at Dick in an almost calculating manner. It made Dick want to laugh because it was exactly what his older counter part does as well, it’s funny to know that it’s just a Tim thing in general. Dick knows exactly what’s going through his head, it’s like he recognises Dick but doesn’t, that something was off with him but Timmy couldn’t work out what.

Dick knows of course. Tim first met Dick when he was nine years old, Tim would have been the age he is now when that first happened, so of course the kid is confused on why this adult looked like an older version of the kid he met only a short time ago. Dick keeps on expecting Timmy to ask him something about it, but the question never comes. Dick isn’t willing to bring it up so he leaves it be, if it was really bothering Timmy, the kid would speak up about it.

During their times together he obviously gets pictures of a sleeping Timmy on his lap. Once they had Tim back he was going to show his little brother what a cuddle monster he really was (he also wants to have a serious discussion with him about being touched starved because that is not okay but that’s for a later date) because it’s too damn cute not to share. He can’t wait to see the look on Tim’s face when he sees the photos.

* * *

It takes all of Damian’s training in self-restraint to stop himself from lashing out the insufferable child that is Drake. It’s bad enough when he had to deal with Drake as an adult, but now he’s being forced to deal with him as a child who doesn’t know anything.

Damian isn’t a babysitter. He was born and trained as an assassin. Not some child carer.

Since Drake’s mind had regressed, his father and Grayson (he’s pretty sure Pennyworth is on it as well but he has yet to prove it) are forcing him to take care of Drake when no one else can. Grayson says that it’ll be good if he gets to know Tim as a child and how they could bond. It’s pretty pointless in Damian’s eyes because Drake won’t remember this when he gets back to his normal age (or at least they don’t think he will, it’s just a matter of waiting and seeing at this point).

Throughout the last three days since Drake’s mind has regressed, Grayson has been consistent about finding an activity that both he and Drake would like to do together. After three failed attempts they found that drawing was something they had in common.

They gave Drake some plain paper and Damian brought out his old and never used pens (heaven forbid giving Drake his most used and precious art supplies). That’s when Damian’s self-control kicks in, because Drake cannot draw. It beyond frustrates him on how Drake scribbles the pens over the page in mindless patterns rather than precise fluid motions.

Now Damian is aware that most children Drakes age have not fully developed basic motor skills that allow them to have good self-control, but he would have at least expected Drake to be better than most his at his current age. He supposes that he expected too much from Drake once again.

They were sat at the kitchen table and Damian was doing everything to stop himself from killing the child (not that he would kill a child anyway, believe it or not he does have morals). Drake was sat there happily scribbling away whatever his imagination was conjuring up. After about 10 minutes he lifts the paper up for Damian to see, his blue eyes were wide and he was wearing a large grin.

“Damian look!” The child exclaims looking proud of himself.

Damian glances at him before looking at the mess that was on the paper. To him it just looked like a load of black scribbles. There wasn’t anything to it. He keeps himself from commenting on it however.

“I drew Batman!” He exclaims again.

Damian studies Drake’s picture even further and now that the child has said he’s ‘drawn’ Batman, he can in fact make out a rough figure that was supposed to resemble his father. He sees what was supposed to be Batman’s cowl and long lines resembling his cape.

Drake was still looking at him with a hopeful expression and Damian realises that he wants an opinion. As much as Damian wants to tell the child that it looks nothing like Batman, he doesn’t. Grayson has already given him a lecture on how to look after Drake and how to treat him. According to the man, Drake could easily get offended so even if his work wasn’t good he should still say something nice about it to help give Drake confidence.

“It’s very…” he struggles to find the right word, “nice?...”

Drake beams at him and places the paper back down on the table before moving onto scribbling onto another plain piece of paper. As he watches the child draw with all of his focus, creating whatever is in his mind Damian makes the decision to try and keep that drawing of Batman Drake had done. He figures that it would be good blackmail material for when Drake is back to his normal age. It’ll be amusing to watch Drake’s face when he sees the drawings his four-year-old self had drawn with all of his heart.

* * *

Bruce adored Timmy. Not that he’ll ever tell anyone that, but he really does. He’s not playing favourites with his kids, it’s just that he’s never had any of his children at this delicate age so seeing Tim like this really was something.

Of course along with all the humour and laughs came the worries and concerns. It’s been a few days since Tim’s mind has changed and he still hasn’t heard anything back from the League. It’s constantly on his mind about how this could potentially be permanent for Tim. He tries not to think about it but it’s hard not to.

Bruce has made sure to have his fair share of babysitting chances during the last few days. There was no way he’s missing out on getting to look after Timmy. His baby-sitting moments often fell either during mid evening before he goes on patrol or early mornings when the child first wakes up before he goes to WE.

It took a few times to work out what Timmy likes to do, he’s aware of Kon-el playing cards with him, Dick watching films with him and Damian’s drawing sessions but eventually he found something that Timmy enjoyed to do with him and that was photography. All Bruce had to do was give Timmy his phone then the kid would be occupied for at least an hour, maybe two at the most. Bruce reprogramed an old phone (which still had a decent camera) so the date wouldn’t show up every time Timmy used it. Fortunately the child didn’t seem bothered by the lack of date and was only interested in taking photos of absolutely everything around him.

There was one morning in particular that he couldn’t wait to tell Tim about. Once his son was back to his normal age, he’ll show him the pictures that Timmy had manged to capture of that morning.

Bruce had woken Timmy up as he was going through his morning routine. He picked the child up and carried him down to the kitchen. Bruce placed him at the table before going around and putting together a healthy breakfast for him, once that was done he starts himself up a pot of coffee.

After his coffee was done he pours it into a mug and joins Timmy at the table. He gives the child his phone and watches with amusement as he immediately goes to the camera and starts to take pictures of the fruit included in his breakfast. As time goes by Bruce has to often remind Timmy to eat his food rather than just photograph it, the kid adorably pouts at him every time but he does what he’s told and eats it.

Minutes later the other residents within the Manor start to make appearances. Dick was the first to rise, he comes bouncing into the kitchen like a happy puppy and grins brightly at the two of them. He playfully jabs at Bruce and his need for coffee before gently asking Timmy for a morning hug which he surprisingly says yes to. After that his eldest grabs himself a bowl of sugary cereal before settling down at the table.

The next to join them was Conner, who comes strolling into the kitchen and smiles at them in greeting. He also grabs himself some cereal before sitting down the table, he reaches over and gently ruffles Timmy’s hair before asking the kid how he slept.

The third member to join their party was Damian. He comes into the kitchen with his chin held high and looking like he owns the place. He greets them all formally before getting himself some porridge for breakfast unlike the two before him, he also settles at the table and quietly eats his food.

Jason was the last of his sons to join them. He doesn’t even bother with greetings as he stalks over to the coffee pot and pours himself a cup. He sits down at the table and continues to ignore them all. Jason was never a morning person, not even when he was a teenager (except when he had to go to school), it’s nice to know some things never change.

Surprisingly it was peaceful in the kitchen for a long time, probably the longest time that all his sons have been in a room together and have not argued at all, though that may be to do with the fact Tim isn’t exactly present. But as always, good things must come to an end. The ending of the peaceful atmosphere in the kitchen suddenly disappears as both Jason and Damian starts to shout at one another. What they were arguing about Bruce doesn’t have a clue and he’s really not fussed about getting involved. He’ll only step in if they try to kill one another.

It doesn’t go unnoticed how Timmy startled at the sudden shouting, he even dropped the phone he was holding onto the table. Before Bruce could go and comfort him, Conner was there gaining his attention and placing the phone back into his tiny hands in an attempt to distract Timmy from the shouting.

Looking back at his sons Bruce finds Jason now standing up and pointing at Damian. As Damian argues back he sees a smirk appear on Jason’s face and instantly knows what his second son was planning.

“Jason…” He warns.

Of course he gets ignored and before he could do anything Jason had reached over, picked up Damian’s bowl and smothered the teens face with the remaining contents from it.

After that an eerily silence settles over the kitchen. Jason’s still standing and was wearing a sinister grin. Conner was looking between Jason and Damian with wide eyes and his mouth agape. Dick had his face buried in one hand, obviously completely done with the people he claims as his brothers. Timmy was just looking at them in confusion, not fully understanding what had happened. Bruce watches with amusement as the kid brings up the phone and snaps pictures of everyone’s reaction to what had just happened.

Damian just sits in his seat silently fuming. Bruce begins to count down the seconds to the inevitable explosion that’s about to happen.

A few heavy beats go by before Damian was spitting out, “if you value your life Todd, you better start running.”

Jason barks out a laugh, not taking the threat seriously.

There’s a few more beats before suddenly Damian was leaping out of his chair and lunging at Jason.

Jason startles at the sudden movement, he gets out an “oh shit” before dodging the teenager and booking it out of the room. Damian instantly chases him, screaming “I’m going to kill you Todd, rip you apart limb from limb!”

Bruce can hear them running about the Manor, both screaming disturbing threats at one another. He looks at the other three people in the room. Timmy was paying them no attention thankfully, his focus was on the phone. Conner was looking horrified at the kind of things his sons were saying to one another. Dick was looking at him with a bored expression, he raises an eyebrow once they make eye contact.

“Well?”

“Well what?” Bruce questions back.

Dick rolls his eyes, “Aren’t you going to do anything about it?”

Bruce doesn’t answer Dick, he only gives him a look with expresses what he wants to happen.

“I am not doing it Bruce!” Dick exclaims looking annoyed. “I am not playing mediator. They’re _you’re_ sons!”

“They’re your brothers.” Bruce shoots back.

The two of them stare at each other for a solid minute before Dick is rolling his eyes and getting up off his chair with a huff. “Fine, you asshole.”

“Language.” Bruce chastises as Dick storms past.

Once he was gone Bruce puts his attention on the last two occupants. Timmy was there still on his phone and Conner was now watching over his shoulder at what he was doing.

“Timmy.” He calls. The child looks up at him with wide eyes. “Can I see what photos you’ve taken please?”

Timmy looks unsure at handing Bruce the phone so Bruce tries to reassure him. “You’ll get it back I promise, I just want to have a look.”

The kid finally hands the phone over and Bruce flicks through all the pictures. There are lots of his fruit he had eaten at the start and some of his drink that he had with it but then Bruce gets onto the pictures of the family. There’s some of them as they enter the kitchen and as they start to get through their breakfast but then finally he gets to the ones where Damian’s covered in porridge from Jason’s doing.

He goes through the phone and sends himself all the photos to his own device before handing the phone back to Timmy with a smile, “They’re very good Timmy. How about we keep those for later yeah?”

Timmy grins brightly at him after hearing the praise. Once he’s back to normal Bruce is certainly showing Tim those pictures, he wants to bet that his third eldest will be gutted that he missed such an event.

* * *

How could he not adore Timmy? The kid was cute with his wide blue eyes filled with curiosity, tiny hands that often reached out to grab things, his high-pitched voice when he spoke up to ask questions (when he finally grew confident enough) and even that little pout he does when something he doesn’t like happens.

Being around Timmy has certainly brought a new perceptive to how he sees Tim now. Without interacting with the child Jason could clearly see that he was neglected, or at least touched starved. Any praise the kid gets he lights up like its Christmas, he flinches when he gets touched or looks extremely confused every time someone gives him a kiss on the forehead. He looks like the world is going to end when he does something ‘wrong’ and expects a punishment.

Thankfully Jason hasn’t been around him much to see a lot of that, but the few times he’s had his chance to babysit the kid he could just see it. He knows that Timmy is getting better as the days go by but it still lingers around him which allows Jason to see it.

It’s easy to say the kid’s confidence has grown over the last three days. Jason could tell anyone this just from their time spent together. When it’s his turn to babysit he often gets the night shifts which means settling Tim down for bed. Jason doesn’t mind, it just means he goes out on patrol a little later than usual.

Jason has worked out that Timmy likes bedtime stories. He had worked out that Timmy likes books as it is, but it’s slightly different reading at night than reading in the day. When Jason first suggested it to him, Timmy seemed confused by the concept, not fully understanding why someone would spend time with him while he goes to sleep.

That first night Jason picked out a few classic children books from the library and went to Timmy’s room. He let the kid choose a book for them to read and then they got settled together. It took a while but eventually the kid did fall asleep listening to Jason’s voice and seemed to rest peacefully throughout the night until morning.

After that it became routine that Jason would be the one to put Timmy to bed. He’d get Timmy dressed in his pyjamas and tuck him into bed before sitting down next to him and reading the story Timmy had chosen. The first night Tim just listened to him, silently absorbing the story, but as the night went on he got confident enough to ask Jason questions about what was happening and what different words mean.

At the moment he’s reading _The Hobbit_ to the kid. They’re on chapter eight, about just over 200 pages into the book. Normally he wouldn’t have thought that Tim would like this sort of book but apparently he was wrong, the kid was loving it.

_“The path itself was narrow and wound in and out among the trunks. Soon the light at the gate was like a little bright hole far behind, and the quiet was so deep that their feet seemed to thump along while all the trees leaned over them and listened. As their eyes became used to the dimness-”_

“What does that mean?” Tim interrupts him.

Jason looks at him, “Dimness?” At the kids nod he explains, “It means there’s not a lot of light where they are.”

Tim nods and makes an ‘o’ shape with his mouth. Jason takes that as a sign to continue.

_“-they could see a little way to either side in a sort of darkened green glimmer. Occasionally a slender beam of sun that had the luck to slip in through some opening in the leaves far above, and still more luck in not being caught in the tangled boughs and matted twigs beneath, stabbed down thin and bright before them. But this was seldom, and it soon ceased altogether.”_

“What do those words mean?” Tim asks blinking up at him.

“What words Timmy?” He has to keep himself from laughing because at the rate they’re going they’ll never finish the book. Sometimes he just wants to tape Timmy’s mouth shut so he could just read the book peacefully without interruptions, obviously he doesn’t do that because it’s actually really good that Timmy’s asking him questions. It shows that he wants to learn, is curious about it and it shows he’s getting confident.

Timmy frowns as he tries to pronounce them, “bo-bow? Bow. And, um, sell doom. Selldum.”

“You mean bough and seldom?”

“Yeah!”

Jason does laugh at the kid’s enthusiasm. “Well, bough means a tree trunk and seldom means not often.” He watches as Tim makes another ‘o’ face.

That’s how the next half hour or so goes, Timmy occasionally interrupting Jason to ask him to explain a word. Jason did notice that the time in between each interruption gets increasingly longer. Eventually he looks down to find the kid barely managing to keep his eyes open. He shuts the book with the bookmark in place and gently strokes Timmy’s hair, “Go to sleep Timmy, we’ll continue it tomorrow.”

Then just like that Tim is out for the count. The sight was adorable and Jason gets his phone out to take a picture of the kid sleeping next to him, he’s sure that Tim will be pleased to know how much Timmy likes bedtime stories, not only that but Jason now has some blackmail to use against him when he finally does get back to his normal age. For once he can have the upper hand rather than Tim having it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah this isn't my best chapter... it's all kind of just mashed together but I hope it makes sense. So everything going on was happening during a three day period. Each family member gets their own time slot for when they have to babysit Timmy and during that time they do whatever activity they've chosen. 
> 
> I was thinking about doing a scene with Alfred and the girls but I felt like this chapter was long enough as it is. Let's just say that Alfred spends his time with Timmy showing him how to bake cookies and cakes. The girls spend their time with Timmy by braiding his hair and playing with makeup (???). 
> 
> Stay tuned for the next update where we get back to the main plot once again!


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When the Bats get called out for an emergency the night takes an unexpected turn in a way no one was prepared for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fluff to angst... that practically sums up this chapter pretty well. 
> 
> Also I just want to say a special thank you to both odd_izzy and Illuvien who have both commented on most of the chapters for this story. It means a lot that you guys are supporting me on this, but of course a major thank you to everyone else who has also left comments and kudos. All of it means a lot. 
> 
> Enjoy the chapter! :D

Kon lets out an unattractive snort when he sees Bart’s message pop up on his screen. It’s simply a GIF of multiple cats, but it’s so simple and stupid that it makes him laugh. He responds back with his own GIF before turning the screen off and letting the phone flop down onto his stomach.

He sighs as he runs a hand over his face and looks at the clock on the bedside table next to him, _1:46_. It’s late and he can’t sleep. He’s been staying in Tim’s room during his time at the Manor, but even now the luxurious bed wasn’t doing anything to help him drift off. He had ended up texting Bart around 1 to keep him distracted, so they’ve been messaging backwards and forwards since then.

Bart had asked how Tim was and Kon simply replied back with ‘asleep’. Despite Bart (and Cassie) being his best friend and team mate, Kon hasn’t told him what’s happened. He’s trying to keep it away from the speedster for as long as possible, especially with the recent turn of events. It’ll probably terrify Timmy if all of a sudden a speedster came up to him and started to ramble at him with his speed talk, that’s also not mentioning that Batman will not be happy with another meta entering his city with no invitation. Kon’s already on thin ground around the man, he doesn’t want to give him any more leverage to hate him.

From where he was lying on Tim’s bed he could finally feel his eyes starting to drop, his exhaustion finally catching up with his body (he is certainly not a Bat who can keep going for hours on end, he needs his sleep and doesn’t fight against it) and he lets himself relax into the pillows.

Until he hears a scream.

Kon is up off the bed without even thinking about it. He runs over to the door and yanks it open before entering the corridor. He pauses and concentrates on his super hearing. That’s when he hears muffled crying coming from a room two doors down from his, Kon quickly goes over to the door and gently pushes it open. He carefully enters the room and the muffled crying he had been hearing increases in volume. He looks at the bed to find Timmy curled up into a tight ball crying his eyes out with a hand clamped over his mouth.

Kon’s heart breaks at the sight. He doesn’t stare for too long because he knows what to do to help. He goes over to the bed and gently sits down on the edge of the mattress, “Timmy?”

Timmy’s eyes snap open to him and he lets out a surprised noise which is followed by some more crying.

“Hey…” Kon says softly, he reaches over and carefully picks up the kid and places him on his lap. He maneuvers him so they’re both comfy on the mattress, “It’s okay, you’re okay Timmy. It was just a bad dream.”

“It wasn’t though!” Timmy exclaims back as tears stream down his face.

Kon starts to gently rock him while doing soft shushing sounds, it’s his attempts to get Timmy to calm down. Usually one of the Bats deal with Timmy and his nightmares but they’re all still on patrol. Kon rubs Timmy’s back soothingly and presses a kiss to the top of his head.

They stay like that for a while and eventually Timmy calms down enough until only his breathing is slightly hitched. After a moment he chokes out a ‘sorry’. If Kon’s heart broke earlier, it had just shattered into a million pieces at Timmy’s unneeded apology. His voice was so small and had so much pain in it that it made Kon want to cry.

He grips Timmy a little tighter and shakes his head, “No, there’s nothing to be sorry for Timmy. You’ve been told this before. Having nightmares isn’t something you should be ashamed of. We all get them, even Bruce and you know how big and strong he is, he still gets them Timmy. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

Timmy sniffs, “I disturbed you though.”

“Na, I wasn’t asleep anyway. It’s okay to come to one of us if you’re scared or had a nightmare or even if you just want a hug. We’re here for you okay.” Kon tries to reassure him. He’s not sure how the toddler is going to take it but when he gets a small nod from him Kon relaxes a little. See, he isn’t all bad, he can do the comforting stuff.

He loosens his hold on the kid, “Hey why don’t we go get a hot chocolate? Something that’ll help us both get to sleep.”

Tim shakes his head, “We’re not supposed to eat at night.”

Kon rolls his eyes, “It’ll be fine Timmy. We do it all the time here and I promise you won’t get in trouble.”

After a few moment Timmy’s nodding again and Kon grins. Standing up, he places Timmy on his hip and heads for the door to go to the kitchen. The walk there was quiet except for a few sniffs from Timmy, this time Kon just lets him have his time to think.

When they get to the kitchen, Kon places Timmy in his normal place and starts going around to collect everything he needs for the hot chocolates, he even grabs whip cream and marshmallows. He’s quick and efficient at making the drinks and takes them over to the table where Timmy was sat. 

Kon sits down and starts to shake the can of whip cream, he glances over at Timmy who was studying the drink in front of him, “Would you like some whip cream Timmy?”

After a moment of hesitation Timmy shakes his head, “No thank you,” he quietly says.

“Okay, how about some marshmallows?” Kon asks again.

Once again Timmy hesitates before shaking his head, “No thank you.”

Kon frowns, Tim loves marshmallows. He doesn’t let himself have them very often but Kon knows that they’re his guilty pleasure, he’s surprised Timmy’s turned them down. He shrugs at the toddler and does up his own hot chocolate with a mountain of whip cream and marshmallows. As he was sprinkling a few marshmallows he could tell Timmy was eyeing up his drink and he fought hard to keep a smirk appearing on his face.

Once he was done he looks over at Timmy and asks again, “You sure you don’t want anything?”

As expected Timmy hesitates but this time he says, “Can I please have some cream and marshmallows?”

Kon grins openly now and points at his own drink, “Like that?”

Timmy nods and Kon gets to work. It’s quick and easy to do and he loves the way Timmy’s face lights up as Kon puts a mountain of cream on his drink and as a wide smile stretches across his tiny face as Kon puts the marshmallows on it.

From there they both enjoy their beverages and Kon gets the joy of watching Tim get cream all over his face as he tries to eat it. Kon grabs a cloth and regularly wipes Timmy’s face clean as they progress through their drinks.

As the two of them reach the end of their drinks they get joined by another resident of Wayne Manor. Dick comes strolling in the kitchen looking completely exhausted. At first he doesn’t notice Kon or Timmy sat at the table as he goes through the kitchen cupboards clearly looking for something in particular. It wasn’t until he had a bag of chips in his hands that Kon finally speaks up to the other man and announces his presence.

“Everything okay Dick?”

Dick startles (yeah, actually jumps at Kon speaking) and turns to look at them. It takes a moment but soon enough he’s smiling and coming over to the table. He takes in their empty cups and looks at Timmy.

“Nightmares Timmy?” He asks gently as he runs a hand over the toddlers hair.

Timmy timidly nods and doesn’t offer anything. Dick smiles softly and plonks down in the chair next to them with a groan.

That’s when Kon sees it, “What happened to your wrist?” He asks curiously. Obviously he hurt it on patrol but Kon couldn’t help himself to ask the question.

Dick lifts his wrist up for them to see that it’s been put into a splint. “Just a small fracture, I fell out of bed and landed wrong.” He laughs.

Timmy frowns looking at it, “That’s like mine.” He says holding up his own wrist.

Dick laughs again, “That it is kiddo, we match.”

Still frowning the toddler asks, “Did it hurt?”

“A little bit, but it’ll get better soon enough.”

Timmy looks like he wants to ask more questions but before he could Dick jumps in, “It’s getting late, why don’t you guys head up to bed again and try to get some sleep. I’ll see you in the morning.”

He gives Kon a pointed look that tells him it isn’t a suggestion. Kon wordlessly obeys, he picks up the empty cups and puts away the cream and marshmallows before picking up Timmy. The two of them wish Dick a goodnight before heading for Timmy’s bedroom.

Kon ended up staying with Timmy for rest of the night because the toddler was scared of getting nightmares again, Kon promised with him there Timmy will have nothing but peaceful dreams. He convinced Timmy with his promise and soon enough the toddler fell asleep next to him, it wasn’t long until Kon joined him in the world of unconsciousness, this time finding it much easier to get to sleep.

The morning and afternoon of the following day was uneventful. Kon spent most of it with Timmy as the other Bats had their own things to do. When the evening came around Dick joined them after dinner to play a few games of goldfish which Tim was somehow thrashing them at. Timmy was clearly enjoying himself so Kon’s willing to put up with it even know he got bored after like the first game, having Dick there helped but even then Kon still found time dragging on and his boredom reaching a new level.

That was until Jason comes bursting into the media room with a frantic look on his face. Seeing Timmy there he seems to compose himself but if Kon listens closely enough he can hear the man’s heart pounding at a rapid pace.

“Hey Dick… can I borrow you for a sec. Like _now!_ ” Jason stresses with a tight smile.

Frowning Dick sends Conner a look before placing his cards face down and getting up to follow Jason out into the corridor.

Kon probably shouldn’t, but he listens in on their conversation as they talk in hushed tones, probably so Timmy won’t overhear.

“We need to go.”

“Go where?”

“ _Out._ ”

“What’s happened?”

“Break out in Arkham, most of them so far. B’s already gone, Damian not far behind. Alfred’s already downstairs, O is online. We know your injured but we need all the hands we can get.”

“How?”

“We don’t know. We need to go.”

“What about Timmy? Conner?”

“The clone can babysit. Timmy will be safe here.”

“… okay fine, let’s go.”

Conner puts his attention back on Timmy who was just sat staring at his cards with hard concentration, who was also completely oblivious to everything happening. Dick comes in and crouches down before them. He gives Kon a look like he knows that Kon had listened to what had been said, before looking at Timmy.

“Hey kid, I gotta go out for a bit. Just some work stuff. Stay here with Conner okay.”

Timmy looks up at him and frowns. Clearly the toddler’s caught on that something was up. For whatever reason he doesn’t ask about it, which Kon is grateful for but also slightly concerned about. Shouldn’t all kids be like super nosey, asking questions when they shouldn’t, always wanting to know what was going on. Timmy wasn’t like that, he just looks up at Dick with wide blue eyes and asks, “When will you be back?”

Dick smiles, “Later on tonight.”

He gets up and gives Kon another look before shooting out of the room. Kon hears the two men running down the corridor towards the cave’s entrance.

“Conner.”

Conner snaps his attention back to Timmy who was now looking at him with wide eyes.

Kon forces a smile, “Why don’t we pack this up Timmy and stick on a film for the rest of the night before you go to bed?”

Timmy holds his cards up to Kon, “Can we finish the game first?”

The smile on his face becomes softer at the question, “Sure.”

They finish the game despite it being just the two of them. Timmy somehow wins and Kon congratulates him. Kon then goes about getting Timmy ready for bed, he gives him his medicine before getting them both settled on the couch in the media room. Kon sticks on the next film on Dick’s list for Tim to watch and stares at the screen as the animated film begins to play. Timmy snuggles into his side and Kon adjusts the blanket around him so he won’t get cold.

Once it seemed like Timmy was too into the film being played before them Kon turns his focus onto what was happening out in Gotham City. He focuses his hearing on each family member to try and work out what’s going on. The first person he seems to zone in on was Jason, the man harshly whispering, “Where are you, you son of a bitch?”

There was a reply to his comment, “What’s nowhere but everywhere, except where something is?”

Kon frowns at that. He figures Jason must be facing the Riddler given the strange question. Jason’s response is a long list of cuss words followed by gun shots, Kon decides to move on. At least Jason is still alive.

The next member he zones in on is Dick and that’s only because he’s speaking freely with whoever he’s against. “Come on Tetch. I know where Alice is. If you come with me I can take you to her.”

“No, no, no. You’re wrong this is my lovely Alice!”

Kon hears a woman whimper and he has to guess that Dick’s dealing with a hostage situation. But also, Alice? Who the fuck is Alice? He shakes his head, it’s best not to question it. Gotham villains are crazy.

He moves away from Dick and tries to find the next member but it takes a lot of work. The others aren’t as talkative so Kon can’t zone in on their voices. Eventually he finds Steph.

“Look I get green is your favourite colour but it really isn’t that fashionable Ivy.”

“As if you know what good colour choices are girl.”

There’s a scuffle between them and Kon moves away from her. Steph is perfectly capable of looking after herself.

He tries to zone in on someone else but he doesn’t for about 5 minutes. It happens to be Jason that he zones back in on.

“Riddler’s down, who else is there?”

“Croc’s is out somewhere down in the sewers, Bane’s around somewhere, Freeze is out also, there’s-”

Jason cuts off Dick who had been speaking, “What about Joker and Harley. What’s the news on them?”

“Still in Arkham.” Came a gruff reply that could only be Batman. “They’re both on lock down. They won’t be going anywhere.”

Kon shakes head in disbelief as Jason gets directed to fight another villain. They fight so _many_ villains it’s unbelievable. How do they do it? These guys are seriously super humans that it puts him and _Superman_ to shame.  

He focuses his attention back on Timmy who appears to be nearly asleep on him. Kon makes a decision and begins to carefully slide out from Timmy’s weight. He uses his telekinesis to keep a solid grip on Timmy so he’s not fully disturbed as Kon lays him down on the couch.

Once he’s standing he makes his way upstairs and goes to Tim’s room. He digs around his boyfriend’s draws until he comes across Tim’s spare communicator. He puts it in his ear and turns it on (Tim had shown him how to do a while back just in case of an emergency or if Kon ever lost his powers or something).

 “This is Superboy, I’m using Red Robin’s spare comm. Do you guys need me?” He speaks into the device.

There’s silence over the comm and Conner briefly thinks that he’s made a bad choice in asking if they need help. He’s only asked because he can’t just sit there and be totally helpless.

Eventually he gets a response.

“No. You need to stay where you are. We have this handled.” That was Batman’s gruff voice.

Dick’s voice filters through next, “Where’s Red? You need to stay there and look after him Superboy. You want to help, stay there and stay with him. We’ve got this covered.”

Kon frowns at that, “He’s sleeping. You sure, because I can help.”

“No. We’ll be fine.” That’s Batman again and this time Kon doesn’t push, he can hear that tone of voice which suggests ‘that’s final’ and ‘don’t argue against me’. He’s still kind of scared of the man so no, doesn’t push any more. All he says is, “Okay, let me know if you do need me.”

He keeps the comm in his ear where he can easily hear all the Bats chatting away to one another as they fight individual villains and starts to make his way back to the media room. When he gets there he finds Timmy completely passed out on the couch with the film still running on the TV. Kon smiles at the sight. He carefully bundles Timmy up in his arms so he can carry him upstairs, the toddler doesn’t stir, instead he only curls towards Kon’s chest and sighs happily.

Kon’s heart melts at that, god this child is precious.

He gets to Timmy’s room and puts him to bed, while making sure the blanket is completely covering him before quietly leaving the room so Timmy can rest in peace. He goes back to Tim’s room and settles on the bed as he listens to the Bats talk over the comms, making sure they’re alright.

Except they’re not. Once Kon focuses back on the comm he can hear Batman shouting at Robin.

“I’m going after him!” Robin was shouting.

“Don’t go anywhere!” Batman bellows back.

“We don’t have the time for this!”

“That is an order Robin! You are not to go after him!”

Who ‘him’ is Kon has no idea. At this point it could literally be anyone. After Batman’s order there’s a long, silent pause. When no response comes at all Batman is yelling again.

“Robin respond. Robin? ROBIN!”

“B, what’s going on what’s Robin doing?”

When Batman doesn’t answer Dick is the one who is now shouting, “Dammit Batman, what’s going on?”

Kon listens as the Bats begin to argue with one another about what was happening with Robin all because Batman won’t share anything with the others. It goes on for about 15 minutes until Oracle was talking over the line for the first time in a while.

“His comm is off and every other emergency communicator he has on him. I can’t get in touch with him.”

This only brings up roar in the family. A lot of screaming, yelling and demanding was happening between them all as they all remain in the dark to what was happening with the youngest member of the family. Eventually Batman demands them all to focus on catching the villains that are still out causing trouble as he and Oracle will work on finding Robin.

It then goes eerily quiet over the comms. Kon had grown used the shouting in his ear so now that has all stopped the silence around him is unsettling. As he waits to hear from the Bats he goes and checks on Tim, there’s just something inside of him that’s telling him to check on his de-aged boyfriend. Maybe it’s just his uneasiness getting the better of him. He does it anyway. He peeks his head through the door to find Timmy curled up on his side clutching his blanket like a life line. Upon seeing him Kon feels himself relax a little, at least he’s safe.

Another half an hour goes by before he hears anything again. Oracle was suddenly speaking on the comms, “Robin’s comm just came back online. I’m tracking it now.”

“Robin! Robin answer me!”

The voice that came through the comms was not Robin’s.

“Detective.”

At that one-word an unsettling silence envelops the group. Kon could feel the tension between everyone over the comms despite not even being in the same room as them. With that one word everyone has gone silent, whether that was in shock, horror or anger he has no idea. There’s a long pause before someone spoke again, this time it was Batman.

“Ra’s.”

“By now I figure that you’ve worked out that I have my grandson here with me right now. I’m sure that you’re missing him dearly.”

“Let him go Ra’s.” Batman growls.

“Now, I understand that you’re particularly fond of my grandson so I’m willing to make an offer.”

“Let. Him. Go.”

Ra’s carries on like Batman hadn’t spoken, “I’ll only let him go, if you bring me Timothy.”


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Conner and the Bats try and cope with the fact that Ra's Al Ghul wants to trade Timmy for Damian.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So long ass chapter for you guys. Sorry for the long wait, I've been super busy recently and also working on other stuff as well as this, but hopefully the long chapter makes up for it. 
> 
> Enjoy! :D

Kon’s heart stops at the sound of Tim’s name. He finds himself struggling to breath as both dread and anger builds up inside of him. Ra’s is back and he’s after Tim once again. Kon gets up and travels back over to Timmy’s room. He quietly slips inside and goes over to the bed. Seeing the tiny body curled up in the centre of the mattress eases Kon a little bit, not a lot because Ra’s was after him, but at least Tim is here safe and sound.

Kon settles down on the floor with his back against the bed. There’s no way he’s leaving Timmy on his own now knowing Ra’s was back in the picture. He then turns his attention back on the comms. There’s a heavy silence that has settled over the lines, almost like none of the Bats (surprisingly) know how to take this information. Kon assumes they’re all too stunned to be angrily yelling at the creepy old man for wanting Timmy and demanding to get Damian back.

Before any of them could speak the man was once again talking, his icy tone sending shivers through Kon as he speaks into his ear. “I figure that you’ll want to have a chance to talk about it, so when you are ready to give him to me I’ll be waiting where our last encounter was.”

After that there was no more talking and the heavy silence was back. It stays for a good while before Batman spoke up, “Oracle?”

Oracle takes a moment to respond but when she does she sounds unsure as well as annoyed, “Robin’s comm has been turned off. I tried tracking it but nothing was working, I couldn’t track any of his gear either. I believe they either turned it all off or even using some sort of cloaking device.”

It was as if Oracle’s speech triggered everyone back into the present because suddenly there was a ton of shouting happening all at once. Everyone demanding to know what’s going on and what the next steps will be. The volume hurts Kon’s head but he keeps the device in his ear. Everyone’s voices all merge together and he has a hard time picking everyone out individually.

“Batman what’s going on? What happened to Robin?”

“Why the hell does Ra’s have Robin."

“There’s no way we’re giving him Timmy.”

“Batman, what we going to do?”

“We need to get him back before he gets hurt.”

“We need to protect Timmy. This isn’t the first time Ra’s has gone after Tim.”

“ENOUGH!”

It all goes silent over the comms at Batman’s shout. The man once again proving who has the real power in the family. Kon couldn’t help but wince at the shout. Yep, that’s terrifying. Thank god he wasn’t in the same room as the man just then and thank god again that that shout wasn’t aimed at him.

“Everyone head back to the cave. The police can handle the rest of Arkham’s inmates, we need to discuss what’s going to happen.”

Someone tries to protest, “But what about-”

“NOW!” Batman bellows over the comms sharply cutting it off.

It goes quiet over the comms yet again, this time Kon takes the silence as everyone obeying Batman’s orders by starting to make their way back home. Figuring that he’ll be seeing them soon enough to figure out what to do next Kon turns his attention back to Timmy.

Getting up to his feet he studies the little body of his de-aged boyfriend. A big puff of dark brown hair sits on top of his head, a small nose, two rounded chubby cheeks, small thin lips and tiny hands that are curled into fists. Kon’s heart melts at the sight, god he’s so precious. He never knew how cute and adorable Tim was at this age.

Kon reaches out and gently runs a hand over Tim’s head. At the contact Timmy shifts in his sleep but doesn’t wake up, instead he presses further into Kon’s hold and lets out a sigh. At the same time one of his tiny hand uncurl and reach up, delicate fingers wrap around just one of his own and squeeze tightly.

A smile breaks out on his face. He bends over and presses a light kiss to Tim’s forehead while making a silent promise that he’s going to do his best to keep him safe in all the events that’s about to happen. Kon has no idea what’s going to happen next, he’s got no clue on what the Bats have planned or what they’re going to execute and of course he has no idea on how it’s all going to play out at the end.

All Kon knows is that he’s going to do his best to not fail Tim a second time.

He’s unsure on how much time passes as he stands over watching Timmy peacefully sleep. After a while he begins to stiffen up, so he decides to climb on the bed and lie down next to the current four-year-old. Timmy doesn’t stir as Kon settles which he’s happy about, instead the toddler simply rolls over and curls into him, subconsciously seeking out heat. Kon doesn’t mind at all, he gently wraps his arms around him and settles fully onto the bed and carries on watching Timmy sleep.

 

The next thing he knows is there’s knocking at the door. Kon blinks and tries to gather his thoughts together. He didn’t even realise that he had fallen asleep. A look to the window shows that it’s now day light out, a look to the clock on the bedside table tells him it’s mid-morning.

His attention is pulled away from the time and over to the door as it opens up. Steph walks in and takes in the scene, a smile appears on her face. “Morning.” She greets.

“Hey.” Kon replies back, his voice kind of rough from where he’s still trying to wake up fully.

“I’ve come to relieve you of baby-sitting duties. Plus they want to talk to you anyway. I assume you heard everything last night?” Steph says the smile disappearing off her face as she spoke.

Kon grimly nods as he remembers everything that had happened during the night. He then looks down at the little body still curled up beside him. He’s surprised that Timmy is still asleep, especially considering its mid-morning.

He looks over at Steph again, “Has anything else happened? Do you guys know anything new?”

Steph opens her mouth to reply but seems to rethink her answer and closes her mouth. She looks unsure and worried, that does nothing to ease Kon. Obviously it’s bad, but maybe he just didn’t realise how bad the situation actually was. After a moment she finally speaks up, “I’ll just let the boys tell you what’s going on. They’ll be able to explain it better than I can.”

Kon nods in understanding. He’s not looking particularly forward to that meeting considering how much of a stressful time this is for everyone. The baby of the family (even though that baby of the family is a demonic assassin) is missing and the second youngest of the family has been threatened. Kon could imagine that the Bat family was going nuts.

He gently extracts himself away from Tim and gets off the bed. Once on his feet he stretches and looks over at Stephanie, who’s now walked further into the room and was focused on the bed. Kon turns around and glances at the bed, Timmy was there shifting about trying to get comfy now that his personal heater has moved away. From the corner of his eye Kon sees a small smile spread across Steph’s face.

“He’s so small.” She comments.

Kon grins at that, “He really is. He’s precious.”

Steph looks away from Timmy, she puts her focus on him instead. “Conner, we’ll keep him safe.”

Kon gives her a look, neither of them no longer smiling. “I know. Ra’s won’t get him again.”

She doesn’t reply this time, only nods instead. Another few beats go by before Kon speaks up again, “I’m going to go and take a shower and then see what’s going on with this whole situation. I’m sure that I can entrust him in your care?”

Steph rolls her eyes and lightly punches him in the shoulder, “Of course you jerk. Now get out of here.”

Kon does exactly that. He heads back over to Tim’s room and uses his bathroom to freshen up and get dressed in clean clothes. (He has civilian clothing in Tim’s draws so that was no problem). Once he was sorted he heads down to the kitchen where the scent of recently cooked pancakes still lingers in the air.

Once he gets to the kitchen he finds that it’s only occupied by Dick. He was sat at the table with a laptop in front of him typing away while mind absently eating a bowl of cereal. Kon pauses in the door way to study the man at the table, his hunched position and tired look in his eyes reminds him so much of Tim that it makes him wonder if that’s who Tim picked up the bad habit of staying on his laptop for hours at a time from.

Eventually he enters the kitchen and gets himself a bowl of cereal. He goes over to the table and settles in the seat across from Dick. The older man doesn’t even acknowledge him. Kon frowns as he begins to eat, his mind trying to come up with a way to bring up the topic of Damian to the man, but it was difficult. He’s never seen Dick look so… absent, disconnected? Would they be the right words to describe him right now? Kon’s used to seeing Dick being all perky and full of smiles, not this grim and dark version of him that apparently exists.

Even as Kon finishes his cereal the man still hasn’t said anything to him. His attention never wondering away from the laptop for even a second. It’s creeping Kon out if he was being honest. Sure he’s used to this behaviour from Tim but not from Dick. If it was Tim in Dick’s seat right now, Kon would go over and annoy Tim with little touches and kisses to drag him away from the computer but (obviously) he can’t do that with Dick.

As Kon was thinking about getting up and leaving, willing to let the whole thing go, Dick suddenly slams the laptop closed and stands up. The abrupt movement makes Conner jump in his seat and he looks wide eyed at Dick. Dick looks back at him with narrowed eyes, “Let’s go down to the cave.”

Without question Kon follows Dick through the halls and over to the old grandfather clock, staying a few steps behind the other man the entire time. Dick was not in a good mood and Kon really didn’t want to accidently trigger him off.

They descend the stairs and enter the cave. Bruce was at the computer, Alfred by his side, Jason was over by the weapons table with a variety of gadgets in front of him and Cass was on the training mats kicking the shit out of a practice dummy.

Kon felt extremely sorry for that dummy.

He and Dick walk over to the computer and stand a little behind Bruce. Their movements across the cave catches Jason’s eyes and he lets out a loud sigh, “Well it’s about time.”

That prompts Bruce to spin around and look at them. He gives them a once over before going back to the computer screen.

“Who is with him now?” He asks, well, more demands.

Kon swallows the lump that’s formed in his throat, “Uh, Steph is with him now. She said that you’ll be better at explaining what’s going on.”

There’s a pause for a long time and Kon works hard to not fidget in his spot. The Bats simply continued with what they were doing, Cass training, Jason making weapons, Dick was now on the computer despite being stood up and Bruce was still typing away with Alfred was looking over his shoulder.

Kon couldn’t help but jump when Bruce speaks again.

“We have a plan and we’re executing it tonight. Your job, Kon-el, is to stay here and keep an eye on Tim.”

Before Kon could respond Jason obnoxiously snorted from where he was sat. Most heads in the cave turn towards him and give him questioning looks.

“Oh please! Your plan is shit. Surely, _you_ , the world’s best detective should be able to come up with something better than splitting up and doing some recon on a building where Damian is _potentially_ being held.”

Bruce turns around and glares in the direction of his second eldest. “Until we know more,” he growls out, “Recon is our only option. We gather intel, learn what we can, then we’ll plan to make a move afterwards.”

“It’s not going to work.” Jason stated stubbornly. “Ra’s is too smart, he knows we’re coming and he’s got a plan. Multiple plans! The only one who’s ever successfully fucked with him is Tim and he’s not here! We need a better plan.” A tense and heavy silence falls over everyone in the cave as father and son glare at one another. Bruce opens his mouth to speak but Jason beats him to it, he jumps up onto his feet and points at Bruce, “Don’t you dare deny it!”

“It’s not ideal but it’s what we got. We need to gather intel about the building and try to find out where Damian is being kept. We’ve got time, we know that Ra’s won’t actually hurt Damian, at least when we’re not around to witness it, and that buys us at least another day. We can’t do anything during the day, so tonight we get ready and head out.”

Jason continues to glare at the man, even when he turns his back and carries on typing on the computer. Jason sits back down and mutters, “It’s still stupid and won’t work.” Bruce just ignores him.

Kon simply frowns at it all. He gets Jason’s point, they do need more of an elaborated plan, especially since they’re dealing with Ra’s Al Ghul. Kon knows from Tim about how smart the man is and how deceiving he could be. On the other hand Kon could see Bruce’s point of view from where they need to gather intel about the building so they can learn what they’re dealing with before making any plans to rescue Damian.

“So, uh…” Kon says, feeling uneasy. God he hates talking to the Bats like this, “Uh, while you guys go and do recon all I got to do is stay with Tim tonight?” He asks. He just wants to confirm that’s all he’s got do because that’s easy enough. He can look after Timmy.

No one answers him. He glances around to find that they’re all invested in their activities. As Kon was about to call it quits, because he was seriously ready to get out of the cave at that point, Alfred turns around and faces him. The elderly man gives him a sympathetic smile.

“Yes Master Conner, however you will also be accompanied by Master Jason and Miss Stephanie. Master’s Bruce and Dick and Miss Cassandra will be going out and gathering intel so we can try and locate where Master’s Damian’s is being held.”

Kon nods in understanding. That seems simple enough. He smiles back at Alfred, thankful for elderly man. Believing no more needs to be said Kon turns around and heads for the stairs that leads back up to the Manor, more than grateful to be finally getting out of the bat infested cave.

* * *

It was nearing around nine o’clock when the Bats head out to go do the recon. As he was gearing up Bruce was giving both him and Steph strict instructions on what to do with Timmy like they didn’t already know what to do with the toddler. Jason was currently with him and trying to find a way to put the kid to bed. For whatever reason Timmy was being fussy and refusing to sleep, Jason’s usual bedtime stories weren’t working. Timmy says he wasn’t tired but Kon has a feeling that he knows something was up and he’s refusing to sleep because he wants to know what it was.

Once the Bats left the cave in order to start their recon, Conner and Steph leave the cave and head back up to the Manor, they chat lightly to one another until they get to the stairs where they find Jason carrying a very wide-awake Timmy in his arms. The kid was wrapped up in a blanket and dressed in his Justice League pyjama’s and was staring at them with wide blue eyes.

They both give Jason a look.

Jason glowers back at them, clearly annoyed. “The kid won’t go to sleep no matter what I do.”

“I’m not tried.” Timmy protests looking at them pouting.

“Kid, it’s nine o’clock. It’s past your bedtime.” Jason tells him.

Timmy simply ignores him and carries on pouting at them.

Jason rolls his eyes and continues down the stairs until he’s sanding next to them. Steph reaches out and ruffles Timmy’s hair, “Why don’t we go watch a film then? That’ll keep you occupied right?”

Timmy stops his pouting and shrugs, he’s then holding his arms out to Steph who quickly snatches him from Jason with a huge grin. Without any more words Steph turns around and walks down the corridor, supposedly heading for the media room. Conner and Jason silently follow her soon afterwards.

By the time they get there Steph has already laid out some blankets and pillows across the sofa. Timmy was snuggled up in the corner of the chair with his own blanket still wrapped around him.

“Come on fellas!” Steph says cheerfully. “Let’s get this show on the road!”

She plonks her self down on the sofa with the TV remote in hand, Jason and Kon join her as she loads up Netflix onto the screen. They all shift about until they’re comfy and all easily settle down by the time the film starts.

Time goes slowly as they watch the film. Or at least it does to Kon. The film wasn’t interesting at all, some sort of animation for kids but it does the job of keeping Timmy entertained so he wasn’t complaining. When he next looks at the time he finds it just gone ten, meaning only one hour has ticked by when it really felt like five.

Kon’s brought out of his head when he hears a knock at the door. His head whips around to as it opens up to reveal Alfred. The old man takes a moment to study the scene of them all crammed onto one couch watching a children’s film at ten o’clock at night. At first Kon thought the man was going to scold them for keeping Timmy up for so long but after a moment a rare expression appears on his face and he frowns at them.

“Master’s Jason and Conner would you mind joining me out in the hall for a moment please?” There was something wrong with Alfred’s voice but Kon couldn’t place it, like it was tight and being forced. It was actually unsettling to see Alfred so… nervous? Worried? Because even Kon knows by now that if Alfred’s worried then they really ought to be worried.

He shares a look with both Jason and Steph. From their confused looks and frowns he figures they’ve come to the same conclusion he has, which was both a relief and nerve wracking. Kon and Jason then gently pry themselves away from the couch and try to not disturb Timmy who was (somehow still awake) watching the screen with laser focus.

Together they go over to Alfred and go out into the hall. Closing the door behind them they face the butler.

“Alfred what’s wrong? What’s happened?” Jason asks as he crosses his arms over his chest.

He looks at them both before turning away and walking down the hall in quick fluent motions, “If you both would like to come with me.”

He and Jason share a look again and quickly follow the butler. Alfred leads them to the kitchen and stands by the window. “Look out the window and tell me what you see.” He says. His facial expression doesn’t give anything away to what he was thinking but that tightness in his voice was still there.

Together he and Jason move the blind away from the window and look out of it. Kon knows that this window over looks Wayne Manor’s enormous back garden, but all he could see when looking out of the window was darkness, nothing but the night. He frowns to himself, something else must be out there if Alfred came and got him and Jason. Kon inspects the night even more and eventually something catches his eye. There’s a shape that just doesn’t belong with the rest of the scene. It blends in well with the darkness around it but now he knows it there, Kon could make it out.

The shape is a human figure. While Kon couldn’t see the details, he could make out the head shape, then the shoulders and the rest of the body. It stands there unmoving, completely still as a statue. Kon blinks a few times just to make sure he’s not seeing things. It’s still there and hasn’t moved.

“Son of a bitch…” Jason hisses out. “It’s a fucking ninja.”

Jason pulls away form the window and looks at Alfred with wide eyes. “There’s a fucking ninja on our lawn Alfred.”

Kon also pulls away form the window and lets the blinds drop back down. That would explain why he couldn’t see the figure’s details, they would be covered head to toe in fabric and gear.

“Indeed Master Jason. He’s not the only one either. There’s a few around the lawn from what I have seen.”

“Have they surrounded the Manor?” Jason asks.

“I am not sure sir. I have only just seen this with my own eyes.”

Jason curses under his breath and begins to dig through his pockets. After a few seconds he brings out a comm. Placing it in his ear he looks at Kon. “Have you got the comm on you?”

Kon frowns and checks his pockets. After patting them and finding them empty except for his phone he looks hopelessly at Jason, “No I don’t. Sorry.”

Jason rolls his eyes and curses under his breath once again. Kon catches him saying something about how useless he is. Jason starts shifting through the kitchen, opening a variety of cupboards and draws in the hunt for something. He eventually finds what he’s looking for and chucks it at Kon who fumbles for a moment as he tries to catch it. Once it was safe in his hands he finds that it’s another communicator.

“Put that in your ear and don’t take it out. I’m going to text Steph and tell her do the same. If there’s ninja out in the back then there’s bound to be some around the front as well. I _told_ Bruce that his plan was stupid and wouldn’t work. Ra’s is smarter than that, I bet we’ve just fallen into his trap, caged in our home.”

Jason takes a peek out the window once again before looking at Alfred.

“Alfred I want you to go down to the cave and bring up the Manor’s security. We’ve got to try and find out how many of them are around. Contact Babs and tell her to do the same, then if you get the chance try and get a hold of Bruce to tell him what’s happening.”

Alfred nods, “Of course Master Jason. Let’s hope this doesn’t escalate.”

Jason shakes his head, “Don’t fucking jinx us Alf. It looks like we’re in for a long night. Our top priority is making sure Timmy is safe. Whatever it takes. Conner, stay here and keep an eye out of the window. Let me know if any more appear or if they move.”

Kon couldn’t do anything but stare at Jason. His lack of response doesn’t matter though because Jason was spinning around heading out of the kitchen at a jog, Alfred wasn’t far behind him. He’s never seen Jason take control like that. He’s always assumed that it’s either Tim or Dick that’s always been the leaders of the family but believe it or it seems like Jason’s picked those leadership skills up as well.

Maybe it’s that or just his over protectiveness for Tim is fuelling him on to make sure his brother is safe and sound. It’s probably both.

Kon goes back to looking out of the window. As he does he sticks the comm in his ear and activates it. He instantly hears Jason muttering under his breath, something about how he was right and Bruce was wrong and how they’ve now got to defend the Manor against an army of ninja.

He tunes out Jason’s muttering. As amusing as it was he needed to focus on what’s before him. The ninja he saw earlier was still standing there. It looks like he hasn’t moved at all. Kon couldn’t get over at how well he blends into the darkness around him, but he guesses he shouldn’t have been surprised, it’s their job at the end of the day.

Kon looks away from that ninja and out over the other side of the lawn. It takes a while but he eventually spots three more just standing there, not moving and still as statues. They’re spread out over the lawn and blend just as well as the first into the darkness around them. It just makes him wonder how many more are there that he’s not seeing. The way they’re just standing there makes Kon feel like they’re waiting for something. But what exactly? Kon’s pretty sure he doesn’t want the answer.

All of it is creeping Kon out. As he looks out of the window he can just feel them staring right back at him. Even know he can’t see their eyes he can certainly feel them. He pulls down the blind and steps away from the window and tries to get himself together again.

“Conner.”

The voice in his ear get his attention.

“What?” He asks.

“What’s your status?”

“I’ve seen three more. They’re just standing there like they’re waiting for something.” He voices his thoughts to the older man.

“I know.” Jason tells him. “I can see at least six just standing on the front lawn.”

That’s when Alfred’s voice filters through. “It appears they’re all around the Manor as we expected. All of them, as you say, are standing still.”

“Got a number for us Alf? What about B, have you been able to contact him?”

“I can’t give you an exact number Master Jason and unfortunately I haven’t been able to get through to him yet.”

There’s a long pause. Conner was about to speak up when Jason suddenly shouts, “Shit! They’ve fucking moved!”

Kon’s eyes widen and he speeds back over to the window. Yanking the blind back up he peers out into the night to find absolutely nothing. They’re gone. All of the figures that were once there just minutes ago have disappeared.

“Shit.” He echo’s. “Mine are gone too. Jason what do we do?”

Jason doesn’t reply and Kon feels panic rising up inside of him. He scans the lawn looking for any signs of the missing ninja but nothing comes up.

“Jason?” He tries again.

Seconds tick by and Kon grows uneasy. Has something happened to the other man? Why wasn’t he answering. Then abruptly cutting off the silence in Kon’s ear there was a shout of “fuck!” followed by the sound of glass shattering.

“Jason!” Kon stresses.

He turns away from the window and prepares to bolt to where the other man was, however before he could there was a loud shattering sound next to him and it was suddenly raining glass. Instinctively Kon covers his head to protect himself, while that stops the glass from harming his head (even though it couldn’t harm him anyway but that wasn’t the point) it does nothing to stop the boot that connects with his stomach.

His breath gets knocked out of him as he lands hard on his back a few meters away. He scrambles up to his feet and looks at what’s attacked him. Three ninja are now standing there in the kitchen opposite him, behind them was the remains of what was the kitchen window.

Kon steadies himself and clenches his fists. He knows what he needs to do. He can’t let any of them leave this room. If they escape then Tim is in danger.

They attack first. One swings out with a sword while another throws some throwing stars, Kon’s able to dodge both and lunges forward to try and tackle one of them, he misses as they slink out of his range. He spins around and tries to punch one but they only dodge and throw one of their own.

It goes on like that for a good while, like a game of cat and mouse. After a while he grows frustrated because he couldn’t hit them and he learns that they’re playing with him. It’s that point when he figures out that he’ll just have to cheat in hopes of beating them.

His first opportunity comes after he successfully lands a hit on one of them. Using the opportunity he grabs their ankle with his TTK and throws them across the room, they collide with one of their buddies and go crashing down on the kitchen table. The furniture flips over from their sudden weight and chairs go everywhere. Kon doesn’t waste his next opportunity. He runs over and jumps over the flipped table to land next to the fallen bodies scrambling to get up to their feet. He uses his own weight to pin down one while he uses his powers to keep the other down.

Having no better plan, Kon punches them in the head just powerful enough to knock them out. Despite them being ninja assassins or whatever they are, he doesn’t want to permanently hurt them or to kill them. Once one was down he does the same to the other until they were both down for the count.

He gets up off them and then remembers that there was a third one.

“Shit.” He mumbles looking around frantically for the other one. Of course he wasn’t in the room. He was long gone. “Shit, shit shit shit.” He mutters like a mantra as he sprints out of the kitchen in search for the other one.

He runs down the corridor and starts heading for the media room. He even uses his super speed to help him get there faster. Thankfully he did because that’s where he catches the third one, or at least another ninja in the house because he has no idea how many have invaded Wayne Manor.

From behind Conner tackles him to the ground and they end up rolling around in a tangle of limbs. In the end he ends up on top of the ninja who’s squirming underneath him to get free. Before he could use his power to pin the man still, the ninja thrusts a palm up and hits the bottom of his jaw. His teeth clash together as head snaps back painfully. While stunned, the ninja does something to his wrist before kicking Conner off him and making a break for it.

Conner lands on his back and groans in pain. His jaw has gone numb and he couldn’t feel his hand. After a moment he realises that the ninja had hit a pressure point on his wrist which has made his right hand go numb. Ignoring the pain in his jaw, as well as trying to get feeling back into his hand, Conner staggers up onto his feet and goes after the ninja. He can’t let him get to Tim.

He perseveres forward and comes up to the media room where Jason was fighting a horde of ninja. A quick glance around shows Steph in the corner of the room, protecting a frightened looking Timmy. There was a batarang in her hand and she was viciously kicking out at any ninja that got close to her. Kon snaps his attention back to Jason when the man swears. A ninja had him in a head lock and there was one trying to restrain him.

Conner aims for the one trying to restrain him. He comes in at an angle and tackles him away from Jason. Learning from last time, Conner immediately brings up his TTK to pin the ninja down and proceeds to knock him unconscious. As the body goes limp underneath his weight, he gets shoved from the side and lands on his side with a grunt. He looks up just in time to see a sword swinging his way and is able to dodge it by rolling to the side. The weapon hits the ground hard and bounces back up into the air, Kon uses that moment to take a swing at the owner and is able to knock him down.

“Conner!”

The cry of his name gets his attention and he looks back over at Steph who was still desperately kicking away the ninja. Behind her Timmy was looking at them all with wide terrified eyes and was making small whimpering noises.

He was so distracted by them that he almost got hit by the sword for a third time that night. Feeling angry at seeing Timmy so frightened and terrified he knocks the ninja away and knocks him unconscious. He gets up and rushes to Steph’s side. Grabbing hold of one ninja who was closing her down, Conner tosses him to the other side of the room and does the same for the other one who attacks him.

He turns to Steph and stumbles back as she shoves Timmy into her arms.

“Get him out of here!” She demands him looking the most serious he’s ever seen her. “Get him away and keep him safe.”

“But-” he starts to protest but Steph cuts him off with a shove.

“No buts! Get out of here!”

Kon fumbles with Timmy for a second, trying to get a good hold on him. Timmy whimpers and clings onto him like a life line. The toddler buries his face in Kon’s neck as the meta lets his telekinesis cover them both. He needs to protect Timmy with everything he can and by now he figures that secret identities are out of the window. They’ll have to explain everything to Timmy once it was all over and he was safe and sound.

Kon shares one more look with Steph before launching up into the air and flying out of the broken media room window. He can immediately feel weapons being thrown at him as he gets away and thankfully dodges them, or if they do hit him they simply bounce off his TTK he has up protecting them. However there one projectile that hit it’s mark. It hits him hard on the back and was enough to knock him out of the sky. Instead of trying to get back in the air Kon curls around the small body in his arms and lets out a painful sound as he crashes into the ground below him.

His back was numb and he felt sick as everything began to spin. He groans and tries to get his bearings.

“Conner are you okay? Please get up!”

Timmy.

Kon blinks as he looks down at the tiny body still clinging onto him. Timmy was looking up at him with wide petrified eyes. Thankfully he looked unharmed.

“Are you okay Timmy? You hurt?”

Timmy only shakes his head in answer. Kon feels bad for him, he must be so confused and frightened to what was going on.

Conner starts pushing himself up into a sitting position which does nothing to help with the pain that’s developed in his back or to sort the spinning that his head was doing. He groans in pain and tries to control his breathing. It doesn’t make sense he was fine until he got hit by whatever got chucked at him. He’s only ever this bad if he’s near… kryptonite.

_Shit._

They’ve got kryptonite on them. Well of course they would have, why wouldn’t they the fucking bastards?

Another wave of nausea hits him and Kon couldn’t help but fall back onto the ground. He could feel Timmy squirming in his arms but he refused to let go. He has to beat this. He needs to get up and out of here before –

“Ah, Superboy. What a pleasant surprise.”

\- before that.

Turning onto his side Conner tries to hide Timmy from sight by using his body as a shield. He blinks his eyes open and finds he’s face to face with some very expensive looking black boots. Glancing up he sees fine white, gold and green robes hanging off a skinny body and an unpleasant face looking down at him. Ignoring his headache Conner sneers at the man, hating every living fibre of that belongs to him.

Ra’s Al Ghul carefully bends down and peers at him, “Truly pathetic don’t you think? Someone one as powerful as you, or even your original donor, can be so easily defeated by a tiny, green rock.”

The man reaches behind him and brings out something that has a bright green glow to it. Kon feels the effects immediately, his head pounds a hundred times harder, he feels sick in his stomach and feels pain everywhere. He groans and turns his head the opposite way.

“Why Timothy has taken a liking to you I’ll never understand.”

_The creepy old man is jealous,_ he thinks to himself. Kon glances at him once again just in time to see him stand back up and take a step away. The green glow doesn’t disappear though and Kon really, really wishes it would.

“Now then, Timothy. Would you like to come out here please?”

In his arms, Kon feels the tiny body of his boyfriend stiffen up at being spoken to. Thankfully Timmy does the opposite of what Ra’s wants him to, instead of getting away from Kon’s grip he simply buries himself into it further. Kon welcomes it.

“Timothy.” Ra’s tone was harder than before, like he’s now scolding the child. “What would your mother and father say at you being disobedient to an elder. You wouldn’t want me to tell them about this now would you?”

Timmy makes a noise that’s almost a sob and Kon feels his heart break. He grits his teeth and tries to pull himself together, his head was still pounding, his stomach was currently doing a million flips and he could feel the world spinning from beyond his eyelids. How dare he blackmail Timmy. How fucking dare he.

Timmy still doesn’t move from his arms, however.

“Timothy. It is rude to ignore me. If you don’t come out here within five seconds then I shall punish you and tell your parents who will certainly not be happy with your behaviour you are portraying this evening.”

That seems to get Timmy to move. He starts to squirm in Kon’s arms, trying to work his way out of them.

“Timmy… No… don’t.” Kon moans. “He’s lying Timmy.”

Timmy ignores him and escapes his hold. Kon tries to grab him again but the movement makes him almost vomit. He falls back to the floor and stares through half lidded eyes at the exchange going on between Ra’s and Timmy. Despite the state he’s in Kon certainly doesn’t miss the way Ra’s face lightens up as Timmy appears in his view.

“Now isn’t that much better Timothy.” The man smiles at the child.

Timmy curls in on himself, “Please don’t tell my parents.” He begs quietly in a small broken voice.

“Only if you behave for me my child. If not then I’ll have to contact them.”

“I’m sorry! I’ll behave!”

“Good boy. Now come along with me, I have something I want to show you.”

Timmy seemed hesitant, “What about Conner?”

Ra’s pauses and glances over at him. He raises an eyebrow in a way like he had forgotten Conner was even there to begin with. “Ah of course, the clone.”

Ra’s steps up next to him once again and crouches down. The green glow illuminating Kon’s vison to the point he has to close his eyes and turn away once again. He feels bony fingers run across his body which causes him to shiver, it’s a horrible sensation and he hates it.

“Let’s see how strong you really are.”

Kon grits his teeth and hisses out a “fuck you” at the man before he feels excruciating pain coming from his side. He lets out a shout as he feels something pierce his body somewhere by his hip. His whole side feels like it was on fire and he couldn’t do anything to stop it. It was pain he’s never felt before. Maybe even more painful than his fight with Superboy Prime that killed him.

Okay maybe not that painful, but it certainly was a very close second.

Without even realising it Ra’s had gotten up and walked away from him. With blurry vision Kon could make out the old man holding out a hand to Timmy,

“Now come along child. There’s much to do.”

“But Conner…”

“Don’t worry about him. Now do I need to tell your parents that you are misbehaving or are you going to be a good boy?”

“Sorry sir. I’ll be good.”

Conner watches with disgust and horror as Timmy takes the man’s offered hand and as he leads him away. He tries to push himself up, tries to move, basically tries to do anything to go and get Timmy back. But he couldn’t. His body was in agony, his hip was burning, his vision was swimming and he felt super nauseated.

He falls to the ground and whimpers out a pathetic “no, Timmy” as he feels darkness creep over him. His vision goes black as his body carries on burning and that’s the last thing he remembers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope this was an okay chapter, it took me a while to try and decide how I wanted it to start off and hopefully I didn't drag it out too much. The second half of this was certainly a blast to write when I actually got around to it and I hope everyone enjoyed reading it. Again all kudos and comments are very much appreciated, it's mind blowing that people are reading this and are enjoying it! 
> 
>  
> 
> Anyway stay tuned for the next update!


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While being held hostage, Damian gets a guest and Kon has to deal with pain and the mystery that is the Bat's behaviour.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haven't given up, this story is still going I promise! 
> 
> To make up for the long ass wait, here's a long chapter for you to enjoy! 
> 
> Also, on that note the rating has gone up because of this chapter as there's more hints towards paedophilia, not a lot and nothing explicit but there are hints. I'm just letting you know so you're aware.

Damian sat bored in the bedroom he’s locked in. Well it’s not even a bedroom if he was being honest. It was just a room with a bed and absolutely nothing else. No carpets or rugs, no TV and no closets or wardrobes. There wasn’t even any electricity running through the room, any light he gets would shine through the small square window just above the bed.

It was a lot less than what he was used to but it still was a lot more than what the real prisoners got. At least he has an actual bed with an actual mattress, because the prisoners his grandfather keeps have to sleep on the floor.

He’s sat on the bed staring at the blank wall opposite him. There wasn’t anything for him to do. He’s already gone through a set of basic exercises three times and the small space he’s trapped in won’t allow much more. He’s been stripped of his gear and of the Robin suit, leaving him in nothing but his leggings and undershirt. Since being here he’s already attempted to escape four times, however all of those attempts have failed, each one resulting with him getting dragged back to the room he’s currently occupying.

It’s frustrating. He should have listened when his father told him to stay put, going after Bane was a stupid mistake, especially since that was where his mother and grandfather were waiting. Unexpectedly seeing them both had made him freeze and because of that hesitance his guard was down and some ninja got the drop on him. Damian grits his teeth in annoyance, he shouldn’t have let his guard drop, especially since it was his mother and grandfather and now he’s paying the price for it.

He knows where he’s being held hostage, whether his father and family will work it out Damian is not sure. They’re back where he grew up, back to where he was born and trained to face the world, the place where he was taught to kill and show no mercy or emotions, where he thought he was his father’s rightful heir and the only one worthy of his attention and heritage.

Damian was brought out of his head when the door to the room he’s staying in gets unlocked. Instantly Damian was up on his feet and in a defensive stance, mentally preparing himself for what’s about to come. However, no amount of preparation could have prepared him for a child being shoved into his room. As soon as the child is in the room the door immediately slams shut and the sound of it being locked quickly follows. Damian didn’t even react to the door once again being locked, his attention was purely on the child now trapped in the room with him. The child was small but there was something about him that had Damian on edge.

The child had stumbled into the room and paused as if he’s unsure on what to do. Damian sees him curling in on himself in the classic pose of being frightened. Why there was a child being locked in with him Damian has no idea, but he certainly knows that he isn’t pleased with this new development. He has no experience in dealing with children. What does his mother and grandfather want him to do? Kill him?

It wasn’t until the child turns around and faces him that Damian gets some understanding of what’s going on. Familiar blue eyes meet his and Damian is forced out of his defensive stance as the child runs over to him and attaches himself to his legs.

“Damian!”

Damian stumbles at the sudden weight around his legs but manages to remain upright. He looks down at the child clinging onto him feeling very displeased. Trying to keep the anger and displeasure out of his voice Damian simply says, “Drake.”

* * *

The first thing Conner concludes upon waking up was that it was too bright. Like someone forgot to turn off the sun too bright. He barely opens his eyes before he’s being blinded by the harsh light and that just prompts him to close them again and to keep them shut.

The second thing is how much pain he was in. Everything hurt. There was a painful ache throbbing through his all of his muscles and joints. Most of it, he realises, was coming from his side.

He takes a moment to try and work out why he’s in so much pain, but the throbbing inside his skull was not helping matters and the damn light beyond his eyelids was doing nothing except making his head hurt more. As a being, he’s mostly invincible, unable to feel pain as easily as others and the things that can harm him are prone to kill him, so at least he can work out that he’s been exposed to something that was supposed to kill him.

Kryptonite… it’s definitely kryptonite because of how much pain he’s in. But there was something else… Tim. Tim was there, wait no, Timmy was there and so was… so was…

Conner bolts upright as he remembers, “Oh shit! Tim!”

“Easy. Calm down Conner.”

There was a voice but before Conner could fully register it, there was a pressure against his shoulders that was pushing him down. He tries to fight against it.

“No! I need to get Tim back! Tim’s gone again. I need to get him back!”

“Conner. Conner! Take it easy, we’ll get him back okay. You need to rest.”

The pressure stays against him as he continues to fight against it. Tim’s in trouble, he needs to go and save his boyfriend. The fight in him quickly dies however, he wants to keep fighting but he feels the pain from earlier double and he suddenly feels exhausted. As he stops fighting the pressure on his shoulders disappear and the same voice from earlier is back.

“Conner it’ll be okay. I promise it’ll be fine. Just get some rest then we’ll talk some more.”

Conner found himself unable to respond. His body surrendering to the exhaustion that’s suddenly appeared from nowhere. Moments later his body becomes numb, it’s not long after that that his mind then goes blank.

* * *

Drake would not let him go. As hard as Damian would try the child would not release him. It’s gotten to the point where he is _this_ close to actually hurting him to make him let go of his legs. What makes the matter worse was that Drake was quiet, he wasn’t making a sound and was not offering Damian any information to what has happened and how he ended up here.

Taking a deep breath Damian tries to control his raging emotions. From what he could just piece together with Drake being here with him instead of being back at Wayne Manor where he was safe and under the fierce protection of the clone and Todd, something major has happened. That something most likely being his grandfather or mother attacking the Manor to get Drake and somehow succeeded.

Damian looks down at the child clutching his legs. “Drake can you tell me what happened? Why are you here instead of with father?”

There was no response from the child. “Drake?” He tries again to no avail. “Timothy!”

That gets him a response. The child flinches and immediately lets go of him, as he steps away Damian could see tears running down his face from where he was crying. Damian couldn’t help but frown. He didn’t even realise that Drake was crying, weren’t children his age supposed to be loud when crying? So why wasn’t Drake being loud?

Wait, why did it matter whether he was crying or not? It doesn’t. He needs to get back on track because he needs answers. Remembering Grayson’s lecture on how to act around Drake in his mind-regressed state Damian moves to sit on the floor in front of the child now that he is free to do so. He looks at the crying child and in a softer tone he asks, “Timothy, what happened back home?”

The child sniffs as he rubs his eyes with his hands, “We were just sitting then suddenly the window smashed and we were surrounded by bad people in black. Jay and Steph was fighting but was losing then Conner showed up and then we were in the air like we were flying but something hit him and made us crashed. He saved me but was in a lot of pain then a man came over to us and said he’d tell my parents if I didn’t behave but I’m being a good boy! I don’t want my mommy and daddy to know! I promise I’ll be good!”

Damian blinks at the child trying to decide on what to do next. Drake was once again crying and this time was making quiet whimpering sounds. It took around 5 minutes for Drake to tell him what had happened because in between his sentences and words he was sniffing, wiping his eyes or nose or was getting distracted. By the end he was nearly in hysterics at the mention of his parents.

Despite Drake’s terrible description of what was going on Damian could easily piece together what happened now he had more information. So grandfather had attacked the Manor, Todd and Brown were fighting against them as was the clone. The clone then tried to get away but was struck down and that’s when father made his appearance and used the threat of telling Drake’s parents he was misbehaving to make Drake follow him.

The child was still crying in front of him and Damian knew he had to do something to try to get him to stop. Not that he cared that Drake was crying of course, it was just starting to get on his nerves so making him stop would satisfy him.

“Timothy.” He says, it takes a moment but eventually the child looks at him, “No one is going to tell your parents anything that’s going on.”

Of course they weren’t going to. Drake’s parents are dead. No one can tell them anything. However Damian was _not_ going to say that to Drake. If there was one thing Grayson stressed on while lecturing him about Drake’s mind-regressed state was that he was not to know that his parents were deceased at all, so Damian is just listening to Grayson’s instructions.

The child blinks at him before he sniffs and rubs his eyes again. Damian watches as his eyes somehow expand bigger and how they’re now looking at him with hope. “You promise?”

Damian refrains from rolling his eyes, “Yes, I promise they won’t know.”

Drake smiles and walks over to him. Before Damian could protest the child was wrapping his arms around him in a hug and was holding on tight. Damian froze at the contact, unsure on how to continue with it. He lets it go on for few moments but the child still hasn’t let go, in the end when it’s clear that the child wasn’t going to let go at all, Damian makes a move. He wraps his own arms around the small body and lifts him up as he stands up off the floor. Damian walks them over to the bed and settles down on it with Drake in his arms.

As time goes on Damian finds himself relaxing despite holding Drake of all people in his arms, in a hug none the less. He finds that he doesn’t mind it but if there was one thing he was certain about is that Grayson will never, _never_ , find out about this.

* * *

The next time he wakes up, he’s a lot more coherent. He’s in less pain than he remembers and this time it wasn’t as bright. Of course there was still the throbbing and aching traveling through his body, most of it still centred around his side, but it was more bearable than before.

He takes his time to open his eyes and when he does he finds himself looking at familiar ceiling, he then slowly looks around at his surroundings to find that he’s in Tim’s bedroom in Wayne Manor.

Once he knew where he was he began to push himself up into a sitting position. It takes him a while and whole lot more effort than he expected it to, he has to pause a few times as pain spikes through him but he stays persistent and eventually wins the battle in getting himself upright and leaning against the headboard.

As he was getting his breathing under control the door to the bedroom opens up to reveal Dick, the man walks into the room before pausing when he finally sees that Conner is awake and sat up.

“You’re up? How are you feeling?” He asks as he walks over to the bed. Dick sits on the edge of the bed facing him. Kon looks at him to find that the man looks rough, the last few hours or days (Conner has no idea on how much time has passed) must have been hard on him.

“I feel fine,” Conner lies. The look Dick gives him tells him that the other man doesn’t believe him but Conner chooses to ignore it. “What’s going on? What’s happened.”

“You’ve been in and out consciousness for nearly 10 hours Conner. This is the most coherent you’ve been, which is good because that proves you’re healing. I’m not going to lie it’s been hectic. We had to perform surgery on you to remove the kryptonite and to stitch up your side. Jason and Steph both didn’t come out unscathed either.”

“What about Tim?” Conner asks. That’s what he’s got to know. He does remember Ra’s taking him, it may be a little blurry but the memory is certainly there. It’s his fault _again._

Dick doesn’t say anything for a while. He just stares at Kon with an assessing look on his face, it’s making Kon want to hide but at the same time it does make him wonder what he’s seeing. Probably someone who looks very close to death. Conner grimaces not liking the thought at all, he’s already been there done that and did not collect a t-shirt. He doesn’t want to do it again if he can help it.

At the reminder of kryptonite Kon looks down at his side. Ignoring the discomfort of his body, he pushes away the quilt he’s under and raises his shirt up to reveal a white bandage stretched across his torso. He makes a move to remove the bandage so he could see the damage himself but a hand grabbing his wrist stops him from doing so.

“Just leave it be Conner. Alfred checked the wound just under half an hour ago, it’s all good and healing nicely apparently.”

“Ra’s stabbed me with kryptonite.” Kon recalls.

Dick nods, “He did. Luckily, we found you quite quickly and we were able to get it out of you before it did any permanent damage. Unfortunately Tim, Ra’s, Talia and all the ninja were all long gone by the time Bruce and I arrived at the Manor. We currently have an idea were Tim is as well as Damian but we’re developing a plan before we go get and them. Call it a lesson learned from last time.”

Kon swallows and leans back against the headboard, still trying to ignore the throbbing traveling through his body. “What’s the plan so far?”

Dick snorts and shakes his head, “I’m not giving you any details Conner because you need to focus on resting.” Conner opens his mouth to protest but Dick cuts him off with a wave of his hand. “No, I’m not saying anything. You need to focus on healing. You’re no good to anyone, no good to _Tim,_ if you can’t move.”

“I’ll be fine. Give me some sun and I’ll be on my feet within 5 minutes.” Conner persists.

Dick laughs, “I admire your stubbornness Conner but the answer is still no. Anyway, Alfred made some soup and since you’re awake you can have some.”

The other man places a tray on his lap and Conner just looks at it in surprise, he didn’t even realise that Dick had brought food. Conner hadn’t realised how hungry he had been until the smell of chicken and vegetables hit his nose and wastes no time to dive into the bowl of hot soup, opposite him Dick was now sat crossed legged on the bed and was digging into his own bowl.

That’s how it went then for a while, the two of them sat in silence enjoying the delightful taste of an old Englishman’s soup

* * *

“Damian.”

Damian paused half way through his push up to glance at the bed where Drake was sat. The child was sat upright with his legs crossed and was looking at him with wide eyes. Damian internally groans. There goes his peace and quiet, not that it was noisy before, but now that Drake was awake he’s going to be asking questions and wanting answers.

From where Damian had been holding him (he absolutely refuses to call it cuddling because he _does not cuddle)_ Drake had fallen asleep on his chest. Once realising this Damian carefully placed him down on the mattress and allowed him to rest. He used the time to try and think of what was happening back at the Manor, about what his father could potentially be planning and what he could do to help escape this place.

After an hour Damian had turned to doing another light work out to try and help him to think or was it to help distract him from his thoughts? He’s not sure, either way his workout was interrupted when Drake called him.

“Yes Timothy?” He asks getting back to what he was doing.

“Did you know that Conner could fly? How could he fly?” The child questions him.

Damian rolls his eyes, of course Drake’s questions would be about the clone. Even in his mind-regressed state he was still smitten over the meta.

“I did know that the cl- that Conner could fly. He can fly because he is a meta-human.” Damian says giving up with his workout, he goes over to the bed and climbs onto it, facing opposite Drake. The child carries on looking at him in a bewildered way. Damian figured out earlier that Drake knew the clone could fly, he said so himself when he was describing what had happened, but how much he knows about everything else remains a mystery.

That was the other thing Grayson greatly stressed when he was lecturing Damian, Drake was to not know they were Batman and his allies. Why not Damian couldn’t understand, but he went along with it only to please Grayson.

“Is Conner family to superman? He can fly and so can Superman, so are they related?”

Damian gives the child a funny look. His reasoning has no logical sense to it. Just because they can both fly does not immediately mean they are related. That’s like saying the Joker is related to father because they are both human (and isn’t that a disgusting thought).

He stops himself from spitting out a harsh comment about how stupid it is, he remembers that this Drake isn’t smart and can easily be insulted. He takes a moment to think about his answer before finally speaking, “Yes, Conner is related to Superman.”

The child beams at him, his whole face brightening up with childish joy that Damian doesn’t understand, “That’s so cool! Does that mean he’s a superhero?”

“Yes.” Damian grits out through his teeth. If the giant baboon was more competent in what he was doing and actually paid attention in the field then he would be a decent associate, however he is not and that frustrates Damian, Kent he could handle, he’s learning and Damian is teaching him but the clone had no excuses.

In front of him Drake quietens down. Damian looks over him suspiciously but doesn’t find anything wrong. “Timothy?”

Drake holds his arm up, the one covered in a splint, and pouts at him, “Damian my arm hurts.”

It takes a lot longer than it should have for it to click. Drake would have been on regular doses of medicine to help with the pain, and obviously being here he hasn’t gotten any therefore making him vulnerable to pain.

“I can’t do anything about that Timothy.” He tells the child truthfully.

The pout Drake gives him makes him feel bad. He then realises what he was feeling and scolds himself, he shouldn’t be feeling bad if Drake was hurt. When Damian was his age he had to deal with the pain without the aid of painkillers so Drake can go without them too. Grayson’s voice is in his head then, scolding him for being so emotionless and how Drake is a normal four-year-old kid who can feel pain easily and how their family wasn’t like the one Damian grew up with.

Damian pinches the bridge of his nose in annoyance, curse Drake and his stupid, useless mind-regressed state.

“I will see what I can do.”

He gets up off the bed and wonders over to the locked door. He raises a fist and bangs on it three times. “I wish to see my mother. It is to do with the child.”

There were two voices speaking on the opposite side of the door to him. They converse before addressing him. “How do we know this isn’t a trick?”

Damian rolls his eyes, _imbeciles,_ “It isn’t a trick. The child is injured and requires some pain medication. I wish to see mother about it.”

The two guards converse again and eventually the door was being unlocked. Damian takes a step back and allows them to open it up. This would be an excellent opportunity to escape but with Drake here he has little chance of being successful. While he could always leave Drake here, he knew he would be frowned upon when he returned back to the Manor. Waiting and playing along is his best and only option.

The door swings open to reveal the guards pointing their weapons at Damian. The teen wasn’t fazed as this was expected. He turns around to Drake who was still sat on the bed. “Come along Timothy, we’ll see if we can get you any medication.”

He watches the child climb off the bed and as he wonders over to him. Without thinking Damian bends down and picks the child up in his arms in order to carry him. It’s best if Drake is in his arms, then at least he can keep an eye on him and keep him away from any wandering and unwanted hands.

“Follow us.” One guard demands. Damian does so without question. One leads in front while the other falls in step behind Damian, effectively putting Damian in the middle. Again, this was expected but Damian doesn’t pay it any attention, he simply focuses on the task at hand and that’s making sure Drake gets some required pain medication.

* * *

After they finished the soup Dick took the bowls back down to the kitchen and left Conner alone in Tim’s bedroom. He leans tiredly against the headboard and looks around the room at all of Tim’s belongings. There wasn’t too much to see really, just small piles of mess here and there, the desk was covered in papers though, there were a couple video game posters on the walls but apart from that it wasn’t really interesting. If he’s being honest he’s pretty sure Tim’s things are scattered around a variety of safehouses and even in his own apartment. They’re always moving about from one place to another so it’s not really surprising.

He let’s out a sigh as he thinks about Tim again. He misses his boyfriend. He doesn’t mean Timmy, because yes he does the tiny four-year-old, but actually the twenty-year-old Tim. _His_ Tim. It’s been what, like three weeks since this whole fiasco started. Three weeks since he’s last seen his boyfriend in the way he’s meant to be.

He rubs a hand over his head as guilt washes over him. He’d let Tim get kidnapped, _again_ for the second time in the space of three weeks. How could he be so terrible at making sure Tim was safe? Was it really that difficult of a job? God, when Tim gets back he’s going to be so disappointed. Like if they were really going to raise kids together, how was Tim supposed to trust him if he can’t even look after Tim at the age of four. If he can’t keep one safe then how is he going to keep others safe and protected.

Kon’s broken out of his self-loathing thoughts when there’s knocking at the door again. This time it opens up and reveals Jason. The man walks in and closes the door behind him. He stands by the bed and carefully places down two steaming mugs onto the bedside table, the scent of chocolate hits Kon’s nose which causes him to frown at the older man.

“Hot chocolate? I’ve literally just had soup.”

Jason shrugs, “Yeah well now you’re having a hot chocolate, so suck it up.”

Kon opens his mouth to question it but quickly decides against it. He should know by now that he shouldn’t question of the Bat’s motives. They won’t make sense and it’ll save him the headache of trying to understand it. “Thanks, I guess.” He mutters in the end.

“Geeze, you’re grumpy aren’t you. You could at least be a little bit more grateful.” Jason comments.

Kon glares up at him, he’s not in the mood to be joking around. Tim was missing because of him, _again_ , his side was hurting, he was aching all over and he was tired. Jason simply looks back at him with a raised eyebrow, looking entirely unimpressed. After a moment his face brightens up.

“Oh,” he says like he’s realised something, “Are you currently going through a self-loathing phase, like your version of brooding, because if you are you need to snap out of it.”

Kon grits his teeth and snaps, “Just fuck off Jason, I’m not in the mood.”

The man does the exact opposite to what Kon wants him to do, instead of leaving the room he settles down on the bed where Dick recently was and faces him. He stretches out his legs and leans back against the footboard giving Kon a pointed look.

“Right, first things first,” the man starts off before he’s leaning up and shuffling through his jacket pockets, a few seconds later he grabs Kon’s hand and dumps a couple of tablets into his palm, “Take those. It’ll help with the pain, you should be healed by tomorrow but for now that’ll do.”

Kon debates whether he should or not but decides _fuck it_ and swallows them both dry. It’s horrible against his throat but he puts up with it. He then looks at Jason with his own pointed look.

Jason narrows his eyes at Kon, “Look, once again it’s not your fault. No one blames you for what has happened.”

“It is my fault though!” Kon exclaims. “I was the last one to see him, to hold him. You gave him to me so I could get him to safety but I failed. Again. I’m the one with the fucking powers, I should have been able to stop them from taking him away.”

_“_ Conner, Ra’s is a slippery bastard. We all had a part to play, we all let Ra’s get a hold of Tim, you just happen to be at the end of it. With the way the night played out it seemed to inevitable, Damian was taken therefore everyone’s mind were split, we were weakened as a team and Ra’s took the advantage and overpowered us. We all had a part to play, it wasn’t just you.”

Kon shakes his head, not believing it. Tim was his responsibility, he promised that he’d keep Tim safe and he’s failed. Twice.

Opposite him Jason lets out a sigh and pinches the bridge of his nose, “Despite you already being injured, you’re really making me want to get the kryptonite ring out just so I can punch some sense into you.”

Kon frowns at that, feeling offended. He shakes his head and lets out his own sigh, “I don’t want to hear it Jason.”

“Of course you don’t because you know I’m right, but whatever. I’ll have a word with Tim so he can talk some sense into you once he’s back with us properly. Speaking of which I assume Dick told you that we’re setting a plan in motion to go rescue the two young birds.”

Kon perks up at hearing that, this was something he wanted to hear about. “Well he said that you were developing one, though he didn’t spare any details.”

Jason climbs off the bed and walks over to the bedside table where the hot chocolates have been sat the entire time, he grabs one and holds it out to Conner before picking his own up. “No? huh, I would have thought he’d tell you something.”

Conner takes his drink being offered to him (more liked forced) and the man sits back down opposite him. Conner takes a sip before saying, “Well do you care to share any details then?”

The Bat shrugs his shoulders, “Well if Dick didn’t tell you anything then I shouldn’t either.”

Kon glares over the rim of the mug at Jason as he takes another long sip of the drink. It warm and comforting in a way he hadn’t expected it to be. The soup was lovely and filling but it lacked the comfort which the drink somehow happened to have.

Lowering the drink he says, “Well why not. You’re not Dick, you can tell me what you guys have planned and then I can help you. I need to help you get Tim back!”

As he was talking he felt a wave of tiredness wash over him, his blinking was getting longer and he was suddenly beginning to feel weightless. With a glance at the now half empty mug and one to Jason’s grinning face, Kon was able to connect the pieces to why he felt such comfort while drinking.

“You bastard,” he says as Jason gets off the bed again, “You fucking drugged me…”

Jason reaches over and removes the mug from Conner’s hand, he places it on the bedside table before grabbing Kon by the shoulders, “I did. You want to know the plan? The plan is for you to be resting while we do the rescue mission.”

Conner tries to fight the older man off him but the drowsiness takes over and before he knows it he’s lying flat on his back and Jason was no longer in the room. He’s out like a light seconds later.

* * *

They enter the great hall and Damian instantly sees his mother and grandfather standing there. Instinctively he tightens his hold on Timothy and stands up straighter. Damian glares at the two adults as he comes to a stop in the centre of the room, they stare back at him with their own sharp looks. Damian certainly doesn’t miss the way his grandfather’s eyes linger on the tiny body being held in his arms, he fights the urge to hide Timothy with his own body.

“Mother, grandfather.” He greets. “I assume you have gotten what I wished for.”

“The pathetic child should not need pain medication. You never had it at that age.” Talia speaks almost venomously.

Damian glares at her, “Well he is not me mother.”

“Indeed he isn’t.” His grandfather speaks up as he starts walking towards them. Damian doesn’t move away, as much as he wants to he doesn’t. He stays in his spot and stares the man down as he inches closer. “No, Timothy is something more than you, especially at this age. The potential he has, what he could grow up to be with the right guidance. Timothy is something special.”

At this stage his grandfather is right up next to him and was staring at the child with something close to desire. Whatever it was it made Damian’s blood boil. The man then took it a step further as he reached out as if to touch Timothy, that’s when Damian finally moved away.

He takes a step back and hisses, “Don’t you dare touch him.”

His grandfather merely raises an eyebrow at his behaviour, though he does not comment. Damian glares at him in hatred. When he was younger he never saw it, the creepy side and awful side that his grandfather has but now he’s been away from it and grown up more, he sees it. The way he was looking and watching Timothy made him almost shiver, it was the same look some of the criminals wear when they go hunting for innocent bystanders to harass.

Damian glances at the child still in his arms, he seems to be completely oblivious to it all and was simply looking around the room in wonder. It’s probably best that it stays that way.

The teen looks back at the adult in front of him, “Have you got the medicine I requested?”

The man doesn’t say anything, he clicks his fingers and moment later a ninja comes into the room carefully carrying a small white spoon with dark liquid on it. He hands it over to his grandfather who turns to Damian and holds it out to Timothy.

“Here my child. This will help ease your suffering. If you don’t take it, I will tell your parents you are being disobedient, they wouldn’t like that now would they?”

In his arms Timothy hesitates to take the offered medicine, but it wasn’t until the threat of his parents being told that he was being disobedient that Timothy makes a move to take the medicine being offered to him.

“No!” Damian exclaims, he takes another step back which forces Timothy away from the medicine.

“Damian?” The child questions looking at him with wide eyes.

The teen shakes his head at the toddler in his arms but doesn’t address him. He looks at his grandfather and demands, “I want to see the packaging of the medicine and _I_ shall be the one to give it to him.”

Once again his grandfather looks at him with a raised eyebrow but says nothing. Damian wasn’t willing to offer up any explanation for his actions. The truth was he had no idea what was being offered to the child, he wasn’t willing to take a risk that his grandfather was actually giving Timothy some sort of poison instead of a simple painkiller.

The man clicks his fingers again and moments later another ninja comes into the room, this time this one was carrying a small bottle. The ninja holds it out to Damian and the teen instantly snatches it to look it over. The bottle was simply children’s Tylenol. Damian looks inside and smells it to find that it is the flavour that the label says it is.

“Very well,” he concludes eventually.

He bends down and places the child on the floor before holding out a hand to his grandfather in a silent demand for the spoon. His grandfather gives it to him and Damian proceeds to spill its contents onto the floor not caring about the mess. He wipes the spoon on his undershirt to clean it before he pours out his own measurement of medicine and offers it to Timothy.

The child takes it without question and does the same with the second lot. After that Damian wipes the spoon clean once again and then tucks the bottle in between the waistband of his leggings and his hips. He’ll keep it with him until he needs it again later. Damian gives the spoon to Timothy as he picks him back up, once again preferring the child to be in his arms.

“You’ve become awfully protective over your predecessor, the very person you were sent to _kill._ ”

Damian glares at his mother but doesn’t say anything. Yes, he doesn’t like Timothy very much and yes Damian was sent to kill him but that was before he was accepted into the family, before he was taught the difference between right and wrong, before he learnt how to control his anger. He still has a long way to go, Damian knows that but he has already come a long way. He’s not going to let a child be molested by his own grandfather, not even if that child was Drake.

Also he would never hear the end of it from the rest of the family if they heard that he didn’t protect Drake to the best of his abilities. Not that he cares what they think anyway…

“You are a disgrace to the Al Ghul name.” His mother spits out at him.

He pays her no attention as he turns around away from them, he walks over to where a ninja was standing, “Take us back to the room.” He demands him. He’s had enough of seeing his grandfather and mother, he also wants to get Timothy out of their sight.

The ninja bows his acknowledgement and starts to lead the way back, Damian silently follows behind him.

* * *

When Conner next opens his eyes he finds that he’s no longer in Tim’s room anymore. In fact he has no idea where he is. He appears to be in a small room that occupies only one bed which he’s lying on. Looking further he finds that the room has one door and next to that door is a large window. The window allows him to see the other side that he happens to recognise as the bat cave.

Conner frowns at that. They’ve moved him to the cave but put him in a separate room? Or was it more like a cell?

Approaching footsteps get his attention and Conner looks over to find both Jason and Dick approaching him, they were both dressed in their suits, except for their masks, and were clearly getting ready to go out. The two of them stop just short of the window and stare at him through the glass separating them.

Conner scowls at them, remembering the events that happened. “You drugged me.”

Jason grins, “Yep. Only way to get you in here without any trouble.”

“I can help you. Why aren’t you letting me help?” Conner protests pushing himself up into a sitting position and has to ignore the pain shooting from his side. He still hasn’t healed yet? The wound must have been a whole lot worse than he originally thought but that doesn’t stop him from wanting to go out and recuse his kidnapped boyfriend.

“Conner, believe me, this is for the best. You need to rest and heal, we can take care of Ra’s Al Ghul just fine without you.” Dick says giving him a sympathetic look. “Anyway, Tim certainly wouldn’t be happy if he found out that we let his boyfriend into the line of fire while he’s injured.”

“I’m fine.” Kon protests yet again. “5 minutes outside and I’ll be in top tip shape. Let me help.”

The brothers shake their heads in refusal. “Not happening clone. You are to stay here and recover. We’ll bring Tim back safe and sound.”

“I’ll get out of here and follow you.” He threatens them.

Simultaneously they both raise an eyebrow and snicker, “Yeah good luck with that. The room is designed to keep people in, you’re not getting out unless we want you to. Since your ass is half powered, and you are in fact injured, you won’t be strong enough to get out. So sit back and get comfy because we’re gonna be several hours.”

The two Bats turn away from him and start to walk away.

“Hey!” Conner shouts at them, feeling betrayed and hurt. He climbs off the bed and has to grip the mattress to support himself when he stumbles slightly, getting his balance he steps over to the glass and bangs on it. “Hey! Guys, don’t go! Let me out of here, I can help. Guys. Please let me help!”

It’s no use because the Bats simply ignore him and within seconds they go out of sight and into another part of the cave. Kon bangs on the glass a few more times just for the sake of it before he backs away.

His side was tingling and aching and now even his hands were sore, he lifts his shirt up and glances down at the white bandage still wrapped around his torso. He glares at it for a moment before putting his shirt back down. Stupid wound. Stupid Ra’s Al Ghul. Stupid green glowing rock.

Letting out a sigh he climbs gingerly back onto the mattress behind him. He may as well do what they want him to and get some rest while he waits. As Jason said, Conner won’t be getting out of that room until they want him to or until he’s back to full power and by the looks of it that’s going to be a while yet.

Conner swears to himself that he’ll get revenge on the Bats somehow once Tim is back and once he’s fully healed.

* * *

Timothy ended up falling asleep once they got back to the room. Damian helped him get comfy on the mattress before leaving him to it, simply believing the child was better off being left alone while he slept.

That was around 9 hours ago. It’s hard to keep track of the time but the small window within the room allows enough light inside that Damian can tell where the sun is. When Timothy went to sleep it must have been around mid-morning. Of course he’s woken up since then, Damian had given him another dose of medicine and even a protein bar that’s been given to him as a meal. The child’s simply been on and off with his sleep all day.

Now it was nearing the evening as the sun was starting to get low. Within himself Damian is feeling restless, being cooped up in a small space for long periods of time is never a good thing, he can’t burn off the excess energy he has, but also the feeling of something bad is going to happen at any moment keeps him alert.

He keeps on expecting his grandfather to come by again and demand to take Timothy. It happened once earlier. His grandfather came by and tried to remove Timothy from the room but Damian wasn’t having any of it. He refused to let Timothy out of his sight and especially refused for him to be alone with his grandfather. Even with a sword pointed at his throat Damian didn’t back down, the only thing that made his grandfather back down was Timothy who was nearly in tears because Damian was in danger because of him. His grandfather gave in and said he’d be back later on to claim Timothy, that left Damian trying to comfort the useless child that he was okay and how he wasn’t the reason Damian was held at sword point.

Being awake and having nothing better to do Damian does focus on the door to the room he’s trapped in, trying to listen to whether anything was going on on the other side of the door. There wasn’t much activity happening at the moment, just some guards stood outside of the door.

Except it wasn’t just that.

Something was going on. Something that had the guards cursing and for frantic movement to be happening. Damian perks up and jumps to his feet as he listens to them ramble.

“How did they get here?”

“They were undetected! How?”

“The Master is going to have our heads!”

The speech was cut off with the sound of grunts, weapons colliding and even a gun going off.

The loud explosion wakes up Timothy who had been napping. “Damian, what’s going on? What was that? Are we in trouble?” the child questions him.

Damian doesn’t offer an explanation, instead he goes over to the bed and gathers the child into his arms. Timothy was looking at him with wide eyes which showed fear, fright and confusion. Damian tries to not pay it any attention as he backs away from the door as far as possible (which wasn’t very far, he even climbs onto the bed and presses his back against the wall). He doesn’t know whom is on the opposite of that door, whether they are a friend or foe. He doesn’t want to get his hopes up so he needs to be prepared for anything, this could be his chance to escape with Timothy.

Something thumps against the door, after a couple of seconds it bangs again. Damian steadies himself as the banging continues. Timothy was shaking in his arms but he didn’t have time to comfort the child, he’ll have to make do until they were safe, not that Damian cared of course.

Eventually the door gives way to what ever was banging against it and bursts opens. It swings on it’s hinges and smacks against the wall. Tensing all over Damian prepares himself to get ready to make a run for it but finds that he doesn’t have to.

Red Hood steps through the door with his gun held tightly in one hand and a sword in the other.

“Well princesses, your prince charming in shining armour has arrived.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So how was the chapter? I decided to go with a different layout for a change only because I wanted to cover both sides to what was happening. Did it work alright? 
> 
> Also how about some Damian and Timmy bonding time? It was interesting to write the two of them together in a lot more detail and was certainly fun, especially since I don't write a lot of Damian. I hope it was okay and that most of you enjoyed it  
> Anyway, happy new year guys, hope everyone is staying safe and having good time. 
> 
> Stay tuned for my next update! :D


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jason and Damian have fun trying to escape the army of ninjas who are after Timmy.

“I can’t believe they actually went through with it.”

The sudden voice startles Conner out of the daze he had fallen into. He blinks and looks around at the window to find Stephanie and Cass standing there looking at him. He pushes himself up into a sitting position with his legs hanging off the mattress and faces them. His body still hurts, it’s aching all over and his side was still tingling. God he hates being injured, how Tim constantly deals with it he’ll never know.

Ignoring the pain he watches Steph and Cass, “What do you mean?” He asks in question to Steph’s statement.

“The guys were telling us about how they were going to drug you and put you in the cell in the Batcave so you couldn’t follow them as they go and rescue Timmy, and when I say guys I mean Jason.” She answers back with an amused look.

“Yeah, well he’s an asshole. I can help out, they should let me help.”

Both Steph and Cass give him an unimpressed look, “You’re injured Conner. You’ll just be more of a liability in the field in this condition.”

“I’ll heal.”

“That’s not the point and you know it.”

Conner let’s out an annoyed huff and looks away from them and down at his hands, without even realising it he had been clenching the mattress in a tight grip to the point where his knuckles were white. He forces himself to let it go and moves his hands back to his lap, gently massaging them.

He glances back up at the girls with a curious look, “Why haven’t you guys gone with them to get Timmy back? Surely they’ll want all hands on deck.”

Cass shakes her head as Steph shrugs, “Well we can’t exactly expect Alfred to tidy the Manor up after the whole ninja fiasco by himself and fighting with cramps is not fun what so ever, so here we are.”

Conner frowns, “Cramps?” Steph gives him a pointed look and after a moment he finally clicked on to what she meant, “Oh. Fair enough.”

“Yeah…”

It goes silent between the three of them and it quickly becomes awkward. Conner looks away from them again and around at the room. He has no idea on how much time has passed since Jason and Dick had left him here, hopefully they’ll be back soon and let him out of the cell. He isn’t a fan of confined spaces, this isn’t too bad but he can guarantee it wont be long until it starts getting to him, and of course he wants to see Tim.

A sudden though occurs to him. Jason had said he can’t get out unless they let him out, and when he says ’them’ Conner assumes he means the Bats and that surely extends to the girls as well, so surely they’ll let him out if he just convinces them.

“Can you guys let me out of here?” Just go straight to the point instead of dancing around it, that’s the easiest way he’s learnt to deal with things with Tim so hopefully it’ll work with the girls as well.

Steph crosses her arms and pins him with a disapproving look. “No.”

“Oh, come on! Please?”

“Conner.”

“Steph please. They need my help. I can help them, just let me out of here and tell me where they’ve gone. I need to go and save Tim.” Conner was begging her now, just trying to stress on how much he _needs_ to be out there helping them get Timmy back. When it looks like Steph won’t budge from her position he turns to Cass. “Cass please, you know Tim would do the exact same thing if our positions were reversed. Let me help them.”

For a while Cass looks just as unmoving as Stephanie but eventually she must decide that he means what he says and finally takes pity on him. Cass moves silently over to the door and does something with the lock, as she does this Steph uncrosses her arms and gives her best friend a bewildered look, “Cass?”

Cass doesn’t say anything as she finally unlocks the door. Conner instantly jumps up onto his feet, he ignores how the room slightly tilts around him and wonders out of the cell. Cass grabs his arm and leads him towards the main computer. Conner’s side protests painfully against the movement but he ignores it in favour of looking at the screen where a map has been brought up and to the place where Cass was pointing to.

“This is where you go.”

Conner studies it, letting the location burn into his mind. After a moment he nods and gives her a serious look, “I’ve got it. Thank you.” 

Before he could go however, Cass grabs his arm and tugs him in close, she leans in next to his ear and says, “Be safe. Be careful. Bring him _home._ ”

Conner pulls away and nods, “Of course.” That’s when he finally leaves to go and join the Bats in rescuing Timmy.

* * *

Jason steps through the door and grins. “Well princesses, your prince charming in shining armour has arrived.”

When there was no immediate response Jason raises an eyebrow at Damian. The teenager was pressed up against the wall on a single bed with his arms wrapped around Timmy in a protective hold. Well, that was new. Turns out that the demon spawn _does_ have a soft spot for Timmy.

Jason puts his gun away in his leg holster and drops the sword on the floor. “Well come on kiddos, we don’t have all day. We’ve got to get out of here.”

Damian glares at him as he starts moving off the bed, “Took you long enough Todd, it’s about time you got here you imbecile.”

Jason rolls his eyes and studies them both as Damian stands next to him. Damian was stripped down to his under shirt and leggings and Timmy was curled up in his arms shaking like a leaf in the wind. Poor kid. As much as Jason wants to, there just isn’t enough time to make sure the kid is fine because he has no idea how long he has until the next wave of ninja arrives to beat their asses.

“Right,” Jason says holding his arms out, “Give me Timmy then we’ll get out of here. The others are dealing with ninja and Ra’s so we need to go while everyone else is busy doing the distracting.”

To Jason’s surprise Damian hesitates to give Timmy up, instead of letting go his arms actually tighten around the toddler.

“Damian.” Jason presses.

“Why must I give him to you? I am perfectly capable of carrying him myself.” Damian snaps back.

“Because I said so.” Jason retorts back. “I’m bigger and stronger, I can carry him better than you can so give him here.”

Jason steps towards them and makes a move to grab Timmy but Damian dodges him and steps away.

“I’m fine Todd. I can carry him.”

“Absolutely not demon spawn.” Jason growls out. “Give him here.”

He lunges once again and manages to get his hands on Timmy but before he could lift him from Damian’s grasp the toddler suddenly cries out a _“NO! Damian!”_ and that startles Jason enough to let him go. Jason watches with wide eyes as Timmy clings even tighter to Damian, like the teen was his life line.

Damian rolls his eyes and levels Jason with a glare, “He’s most likely in shock you moron, trying to take him away will do nothing more than frighten him. _I_ shall carry him until we are safe, until we’re out of grandfather’s property.”

After seeing Timmy’s reaction to being taken away from Damian, Jason couldn’t really protest anymore. He won’t admit it out loud but the teen did have a point. They’d need to get the kid checked out after this mess was sorted and Jason hoped they can get him to the jet without traumatizing him even further.

He rolls his shoulders and turns around, walking back to the door he says, “Fine, let’s go.”

After making sure that Damian was following him he starts to lead the way out of the room, having to step over bodies of unconscious ninja to do so. He had to fight a large horde of them to get to the room Damian and Timmy were trapped in, so them being there wasn’t really his choice. 

Damian was silent as he steps outside of the room, quietly taking in the scene. Jason watches as he presses Timmy’s head into the curve of his neck as he starts to step over the bodies just so the toddler wouldn’t see them. He snorts to himself softly, who knew that the kid did have a heart after all.

Once over the bodies Damian picks up the pace and barges past Jason, “Come one Todd, father will be waiting for us and we’ve already wasted enough time as it is.”

Jason says nothing as he takes long strides to catch back up with the teenager. “What’s got you so protective huh? You hated him before this so why the sudden need to protect him?” He questions Damian once he’s caught up with him.

Damian does his ‘ _tt’_ sound but otherwise doesn’t respond.

Jason lets it go for a moment. He’ll certainly press the subject once again once they’ve left this place behind in the dust. They go through endless of corridors which just makes Jason’s head spin. Damian seemed to have no trouble in navigating through the place though, Jason’s willing to bet that’s because it’s his childhood home so of course he’s going to know where all the escape routes are and where they can exit the place or maybe it’s because of the trail of unconscious bodies that’s been left behind in Jason’s hunt for them. Who knows?

They were about half way back to where Jason had originally come from when they meet opposition. The rest of the corridor in front of them suddenly fills with ninja running at them. Both Jason and Damian freeze on the spot at the sight.

“Oh shit.” Jason says before quickly turning around and running the way they just came, a quick glance to his left shows Damian right behind him with Tim still cradled tightly in his arms.

The two of them sprint back through the endless of corridors trying to get the ninja off their backs but nothing seems to be working, every time Jason looks over his shoulder they’re always there following right behind them.

“We need a plan.” He yells at Damian who was doing well in keeping up with him despite carrying Timmy in his arms.

If the teen responded to his comment, Jason didn’t hear it. He was too busy skidding to a sudden stop as another lot of ninja appear ahead of them. They come around the corner in a large black wave and was rushing towards him at a frightening speed.

His jacket getting grabbed gets his attention, especially when he’s yanked forcefully to the side into another hallway which he didn’t even realise existed.

“This way! Come on you idiot!”

Jason stumbles after Damian but was quick to get his feet underneath him, he quickly catches up and continues to follow the teen as they work their way through the maze of corridors.

“Got any ideas? We’re not going to be able to keep running for much longer.” Jason asks glancing over his shoulder yet again, of course the ninja were still behind them and on their tail. Jason’s mind was reeling, trying to come up with a plan that’ll keep all of them alive and Timmy unharmed. He was at a disadvantage however, he doesn’t know the place like Damian does.

When Damian doesn’t answer Jason looks over at him concerned. It was then that he noticed the kid was starting to struggle in keeping up, he may be leading them around the place but Jason could easily pass him and keep going. Carrying Timmy was starting to get to him, the toddler may be light as hell but after a while Jason could see how it’ll start to feel like he’s carrying tonnes instead of a few pounds, especially at the pace they’re going.

He starts to suggest that he should take Timmy when Damian suddenly interrupts with a loud exclamation of _“Watch out!”_ and before he knew it Jason was flying through the air with something large and heavily on him. 

 The landing was rough and hard on his back to the point where it knocked the wind out of him and left him breathless. Being too busy in trying to get air back into his lungs, he was unable to dodge the punch that violently snaps his head to the side. It was because of pure instinct and reflexes that he was able to stop the fist from hitting him second time. Letting that instinct take over, he sends his own punch to whoever was hitting him and successfully manages to knock them away.

Rolling over so he’s now on his knees Jason glances around to assess his surroundings. He was now outside where the sun was shining down on him, shards of glass were scattered around him, a ninja lays in a dazed state a metre or two away from him and he works out that he’s now on top of a roof instead of a corridor, with further assessment he sees where he originally came from.

Up above there was a gaping hole on the side of the building, it doesn’t take a genius to work out that he was tackled from the side which had them crashing through the wall (or more likely window considering the glass surrounding him) and down on to a lower part of the palace. Thank god for there being another part of the roof to break his fall, who knows how badly that would have ended if there wasn’t.

Jason’s already died once, he doesn’t plan on doing it again any time soon.

Movement to his right gets his attention and he reacts just in time to stop a kick connecting to his chest. Rolling to the side he springs up to his feet and delivers his own punch to the ninja’s head which he quickly follows up with a knee to the stomach and a final roundhouse kick that sends the ninja to the floor.

After a few tense moments of waiting to see whether the ninja was going to get back up or not Jason lets out a satisfied huff once he realises the ninja was out cold. He straightens out his jacket and looks back up at the gaping hole. Digging through his pockets he brings out his grapple gun and fires it up towards the hole, in an instant he was zipping back up towards it.

Launching himself through the gap Jason tackles an unexpecting ninja, they go down in a tangle of limbs and thanks to the element of surprise Jason’s able to knock him out with ease. He bounces back up to his feet as another takes a swing at his head and with a few well aimed punches that ninja quickly joins his friend in the land of the unconscious. There’s a few more that try out their luck with him, but to Jason it wasn’t too hard to beat them all to the ground.

After seeing that there are no more ninjas to deal with Jason glances around and searches for Damian. He quickly finds the kid tackling another ninja on the floor, the two of them rolling around them around trying to beat the shit out of each other. Jason wasn’t worried, he knows that Damian can handle himself. What does get him worrying however, was the lack of sight of Timmy. He couldn’t see him anywhere. Panic starts to rise up inside of him when Jason couldn’t spot him any where at all. He looks back over at Damian just in time to see the ninja he was tackling go limp, Damian kicks the body off him with a huff.

“Where is he?” Jason asks trying to keep the panic out of his voice.

Damian doesn’t waste any time in jumping up to his feet and running off in a random direction down the hallway, as he does so he shouts, “They’ve got him!”

Jason curses before taking off in a sprint after him. It’s never easy is it? It’s just one thing after another.

After all the running he’s done today, Jason is certainly swearing off from doing any more exercise for like a week. After this is all over he’s going to go and collapse on a bed and nothing short of someone dying will make him move away from it.

As he and Damian turn a corner Jason asks, “Where would they take him?”

Damian doesn’t answer him, all the teenager does is keep on running. Feeling annoyed at being ignored, Jason reaches out and grabs the kid’s shoulder, forcing him to stop.

“This is ridiculous! We need keep going.” Damian snaps.

Jason rolls his eyes, “We’ve been running for miles. Now tell me, where would they take him? Can we cut them off anywhere, do like a surprise attack on them like they have done with us?”

Damian looks away from him and down the hallway they’ve just ran. He gets this calculating look on his face and it reminds Jason so much of Bruce.

After a long pause Damian looks back up at him with wide eyes. “They’ll take him to grandfather’s quarters. That’s where grandfather would request Timothy be taken too, so that’s where they’re going.”

Jason grits his teeth when he hears that. They’ll be taking Timmy to that creeps bedroom for who knows what. He is _not_ going to let that happen. No way. No fucking way. He looks down at Damian, “Right is there a shortcut we can take or…”

“We passed a staircase just moment ago that’ll take us to the top where all the royal bedrooms are. We can cut them off there.”

Jason reaches out and pushes Damian ahead of him, “Well lead the way then! Let’s go before they get him there.”

They both take off running once again. As Damian had said, they did indeed past a staircase and once they reach it they instantly start climbing, taking two steps at a time. When they reach the top Damian takes off to the right and Jason follows right behind him.

A few moments later Damian holds out a hand and makes a gesture that has them both slowing down and coming to a stop as they reach a corner. Jason gives Damian a funny look as the teen peers around the wall, once he turns back he looks up at Jason.

In a hushed whisper he says, “They’re walking down the corridor towards grandfather’s room. Five of them, the middle one is holding Timothy.”

With this information Jason reaches down and removes his gun from the holster. Giving it a once over he steps around Damian so he’s facing the corridor the ninjas are walking down. Sure enough there’s five of them all walking a quick pace towards a large wooden door at the very end of hallway.

“Todd!” Damian hisses at him from behind.  

Jason ignores him and aims his gun at the one holding Timmy, aiming for the back of the knees. With a squeeze of the trigger the bullet is released and seconds later the ninja collapses.

Jason is vaguely aware of Damian moving away from the corner and sprinting down the corridor towards the group of ninja. While avoiding the teenager, he aims for the others and manages to get two more of them down by the time Damian reaches them.

He watches as Damian takes out the two last standing ones in a violent and vicious manner and then as he knocks out the other three already on the floor. Once he was done Jason moves from his position and jogs down to meet Damian.

He eyes up the bodies looking for a sign to where Timmy could be and it wasn’t until one of the supposedly unconscious bodies starts to move that he realises that the toddler is trapped underneath it. Jason quickly bends down and moves it out of the way for him. Once free Timmy lets out a high pitched terrified scream and scrambles away from him.

The sudden scream startles both Damian and Jason and before they could do anything Timmy was getting to his feet and running away from them. By the time they get over it the toddler was further down the corridor and was disappearing into one of the bedrooms along the hallway, (thankfully not Ra’s) they catch up to him just in time to have the door slammed shut in their faces.

Jason makes a move to open the door but Damian punching him in the side stops him from doing so. “Ow! What the fuck demon?” He protests rubbing his side.

“This is your fault Todd! You were a moron for using a gun, you’ve scared him away from us when we’re supposed to be _rescuing_ him.”

Jason takes a moment to think before lashing out at the teen, because really he has a point. Using the gun wasn’t the wisest of ideas but it certainly helped them to stop the ninja running away with Timmy.

He lets out a huff, “Whatever demon spawn. We’ll deal with Timmy’s traumatization once we’re back at the Manor safe and sound. Besides, it can’t be that much longer until he’s an adult again anyway.”

Jason was stopped from opening the bedroom door for a second time when there was a loud sudden crash coming from behind them. Glass shattered around them meaning whoever it is has just come through the window that was in the hallway. Instantly Jason grabs his gun and aims it in the direction of the window, while next to him Damian gets into a defensive stance ready to throttle whoever was there.

They wait a few tense moments but once their minds had caught up with their bodies, Jason lets out a stream of curses because in front of them stood Superboy.

Jason lowers the gun down to his side, “How the fuck did you get out?” He demands. “There’s no way you could have gotten out of that cell.”

Superboy glares at him, “Actually, it was Batgirl and Spoiler who let me out,” he answers sharply.

Jason curses again. Damn Cass for letting him out. How was he supposed to argue against _her_ of all people? There must be a reason she’d let him out otherwise he’d still be there.

He takes a moment to analyse Conner, he looked wiped out, he was still in his civilian clothing, for some strange reason there were leaves and twigs covering him, Jason also notices how he seems to be breathing heavily and how he seems to be tense all over from where he was stood.

“Why are you here? You should be at home, _recovering._ ”

“I’m fine. Where’s Timmy?”

Instead of answering Jason asks, “How did you even find us?”

“Batgirl showed me where you guys were. Once I got here I listened for your voices. Where is he, Hood?”

Jason rolls his eyes but decides against arguing. They’re wasting time, he’ll just have to interrogate the clone later on once Timmy is safe and has been sorted out. He points at the door, “He’s in there somewhere. Scared out of his mind and traumatized to hell.”

Conner gives him a look before moving to the door, he nudges Jason out of the way and grabs the handle. “I’ll get him out, once I come back out we can go.”

Jason gives him a scandalized look, “Excuse me? What makes you think you’ll be able to get him out?”

The clone rolls his eyes as he pushes the door open and says “Trust me.” He then walks in and shuts the door behind him.

Jason glares daggers at the wooden door opposite him feeling resentful at being put to the side. After everything they’d just gone through to get Timmy back, he just shows up right at the end and has the easy task of collecting the toddler and coming back out.

So not fair.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How was the chapter? I know that a lot happens in it but hopefully everyone is able to follow what's going on. I tried to mix things up and I'm just trying to keep the story interesting for everyone, hopefully I'm not dragging it out too much and that everyone is still enjoying it because it really is a blast to write.
> 
> I just want to say thank you to everyone who is reading this and supporting it, it's amazing to know people enjoy what I write. All the kudos and comments are greatly appreciated, thank you so much!
> 
> Stay tuned for the next update! :D


	21. Chapter 21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kon's got the difficult task of trying to coax Timmy out of hiding.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy! :)

Walking into the room Kon didn't know what to expect. Jason had said that Timmy was traumatized, so in what condition he would find the toddler in he didn't know. Poor Tim, this whole situation must have been terrifying to the four-year-old. Getting kidnapped and taken to a strange unknown place, surrounded by suspicious people and practically being black mailed into behaving properly. Conner hopes that Tim doesn't remember any of this when he comes back to them, Conner is willing to bet that if he did remember then Tim would have a lot of questions on what the fuck happened.

The room he's walked into was large but bare. There was a queen size bed pushed against the back wall in the centre, there was a large wardrobe against the left side wall, a tall chest of draws was next to it and over against the right-hand wall was a decent sized desk and a wooden chair.

Kon closes the door behind him and steps further into the room, taking care as he does so. If Timmy's already spooked then Conner doesn't want to startle him even more. He focuses on his super hearing and listens out for another heart beat within the room. After a few moments he finally finds that heartbeat, it was rapidly pounding at a speed which wasn't healthy and was coming from the left side of the room near the wardrobe.

Walking softly, Conner heads in that direction wondering where Timmy could be. Could he be in the wardrobe itself, behind it or underneath it?

"Timmy?"  He calls out gently. "Timmy, it's Conner, you wanna come out for me buddy?"

When nothing happens Conner goes straight up against the piece of furniture. Deciding not to wait, he slowly opens the door of it by the handle to look inside only to find it empty. So he's not inside of it. Conner closes the door to it before getting down on his knees. Taking it slowly he bends over and peers underneath it. That's where he finds Timmy. The toddler was curled up in a tight ball and was pressed against the wall behind him almost like he wanted to merge with it.

Conner’s heart breaks as he sees the sight. He could still hear Timmy's heart pound away inside his little chest and now that he could see the toddler he could see that he was crying, his shoulders were uncontrollably shaking as he sobs and broken noises were being made as he does so.

"Timmy." Conner calls out to him again, trying to get his attention. "Timmy it's me, it's Conner. Come on buddy I'm here to take you home."

The toddler doesn't acknowledge him and Conner considers just grabbing him and gently pulling out from underneath the wardrobe, but after some thinking he realises that that probably wouldn't be a wise idea. Timmy is already scared enough as it is, Conner doesn't need to make the situation worse by forcing the toddler to do something that he clearly doesn't want.

"Timmy, I promise I won't hurt you. If you come out of there I can take you home, where you'll be surrounded by everyone else you know."

Conner cringes that what he just said. Yeah, this was certainly way out of his skill set. He had no idea on how to get the toddler to come out to him. What does one do with scared kids that don't listen to you? Fortunately Conner didn't have to worry over it for too long because Timmy began to shift from his ball shape, his head turns to face Conner and his eyes squint as he looks at him. A few tense moments go by before Timmy was finally speaking up and acknowledging him.

"Conner?"

God his voice was so small and scared that it makes Kon’s heart throb. The poor kid and what he must be feeling Conner had no clue. So small and fragile to the world.

Conner knows that he has to put on a front, he needs to be confident so Timmy could feel reassured. "Yeah buddy it's me. Fancy coming out from underneath there?"

Timmy shakes his head, "There's bad people are out there. They are after me."

Conner has to work hard to work out what Timmy was saying. The toddler was still crying as he spoke so his words kind of merged together and came out in a long sound. Thankfully Conner could work it out, he'll pour that down to his super hearing. What Timmy had said makes Kon wince because he's not entirely wrong. There was no way Conner could promise him safety, he had promised the kid safety at the Manor and look at what happened, he was attacked in his own home so no, Kon couldn't promise that Timmy wouldn't be harmed any more. He won't make any more false promises.

He moves away from the wardrobe and straightens up. This wasn't working. Conner looks desperately around the room for something that'll inspire him to help ease Timmy out from underneath the piece of furniture. Nothing was working though and Kon was left feeling stumped. How does he help Timmy?  There's no way he could go back out and grab Jason or Damian, Timmy had saw them take down the ninja in violent ways so getting them in to help wouldn't be the best idea.

He runs a hand through his hair and lets out a sigh. It was starting to stress him out, just this whole situation was starting to get to him. It doesn't help that he still isn't fully recovered from Ra's stabbing him with Kryptonite, while he was feeling better he was still tired and sore. Flying through the sun had helped a bit but it didn't help him to fully recover.

"Conner?"

Kon's brought out of his head by the quiet call. Frowning he crouches back down and peers underneath the wardrobe to find Timmy a lot closer than before, he had started to wiggle his way out from underneath it and got half way when he called Conner's name. Timmy was looking at him with wide shiny eyes, he was no longer crying but his eyes and face were flushed red as evidence that he had once been.

Giving the toddler his best reassuring smile, Kon gently says, "I'm still here buddy. You wanna come out from there now?"

Timmy doesn't answer his question, instead he stares at Conner for a long moment before saying, "You got hurt. The man hurt you."

That catches Conner off guard and he finds himself blinking in surprise at the toddler. Quickly getting over it, he considers his response before answering. Nodding he says, "I did get hurt but I'm a lot better now. Do you want to come and see? If you come out I can show you that I'm a lot better." Maybe Conner could trick Timmy into coming out without the feeling of guilt behind it.

Timmy doesn't move however, he stays in his spot and blinks at Conner. A silence passes between them before the toddler was speaking again, "Damian said you’re family to Superman, is that true?"

Conner regards Timmy for a moment, so he and Damian had talked about him. It makes Conner wonder what kind of questions the kid had asked his younger brother. After a while he realises he hadn't actually answered Timmy, so with a smile he says, "Yeah, that's right, I'm related to Superman. I could show you all my powers if you want, all you gotta do is come out from underneath there."

Much to Conner's surprise that does the trick. Timmy very slowly starts to inch towards him, making his own way out from underneath the wardrobe. Conner backs up away from the furniture to give the kid some room for when he does finally emerge from it. A minute later the toddler was crawling out and getting to his feet, he surveys the room before looking up at Conner who was now on his knees opposite him. Conner doesn't rush him, once again he's not entirely sure what state of mind Timmy is currently in so he wants to take it easy just so he doesn't bolt away from him. Timmy was interested in his powers and that he's "related" to Superman, Conner should use this to his advantage and distract Timmy from the current situation they're in.

He lets Timmy come over to him, it takes a moment but sure enough the toddler starts to walk over and stands next to him, Conner looks down at him and smiles as Timmy looks at him with his big blue eyes. "You can fly," he states.

"I can fly," Conner confirms, he gets an idea then, "Why don't we get out of here and when we go home I can take you proper flying. We can go right up to the clouds where you'd be able to touch them with your very own hands. How does that sound?" Maybe he could use bribery to get Timmy out of here, at this rate he'll take whatever he could get. Timmy looks at him with hopeful eyes, it throws Kon off for a moment because it's such a contrast to what he state he had found him in earlier. The good thing though is that Timmy looks intrigued, Conner can hopefully play this to his advantage.

"I'd take you flying now but this room isn't really big enough but if we go home then we'll have all the freedom to go wherever you want."

The room was plenty big enough, it's just that Conner wants to get Timmy out of this room as soon as possible because by now he knows that he's running out of time. Thankfully the promise of flying seems to do the trick because Timmy is smiling up at him and was nodding his head at a speed which even Bart would be impressed by. "Yes! Yes please, can you do that? Would you do that? Flying! Real flying!"

Conner couldn't help but laugh at Timmy's enthusiasm, it was cute and such a relief to hear. He's happy that the thoughts of flying ( _real flying!_ ) was enough to distract him from the situation at hand. Hopefully it'll keep Timmy going until they get home, once they reach the Manor then they'd be able to deal with Timmy's trauma which is no doubt stirring upside of the four year old and waiting to burst open once again. Conner gets to his feet and starts to work circulation back into them, he had been crouched for a long time and now his legs were numb, as he does so he peers down at Timmy, "So, shall we get out of here Timmy?"

Timmy looks at him and nods, before moving however Timmy thrusts his arms up in the classic 'up' gesture. Conner easily complies, he bends down to lift Timmy into his arms and settles him on his hip. Timmy sends him a wide smile before he's suddenly frowning. Seeing the down curve of Timmy's tiny lips makes Kon frown, "What's wrong Timmy?"

The toddler says nothing as he stretches one arm towards Conner's hair, a second later he comes back holding a small green leaf. He looks at Kon with wide curious eyes, "Why is there a leaf in your hair?"

Conner blinks at the object for a moment in surprise. Of course he knows why there's a leaf in his hair but he doesn't exactly want to tell Timmy that on the way here he may have been lacking the energy to fly because he had yet to be fully recovered from getting stabbed by kryptonite and how he more than once crashed into some trees and bushes as he made his way over. Instead he simply plucks the leaf out of Timmy's hand and chucks it away, "Well you see I was... helping... out with some gardening and some leaves fell on me, I simply didn't brush them off me before coming here to get you."

It's a bullshit lie. Conner knows it and even Timmy knows it. The toddler was giving him a funny look, the one where it's saying 'adults are stupid'. This is why Conner doesn't lie, it's because he can't. How Tim manages it on a day to day basis he'll never know (he isn't happy about it of course but Tim's always been that way and Conner doubts he'll be changing any time soon.)

Deciding that they've wasted enough time Conner starts heading for the door to leave the room Timmy had taken refuge in. Much to his annoyance and surprise Conner doesn't even make it to the door before he's stopping again. This time it's because another voice was speaking out, one that sends chills down his spine and makes him stand on edge. He freezes in place as it speaks.

"Well, I certainly wasn't expecting to see you here Superboy, especially after our last encounter. Perhaps you've got more to you than what meets the eye."

Unconsciously, Kon tightens his hold on Timmy. With one hand he pushes the toddlers head into the curve of his neck as the other crosses along his back and secures him to his side. In a slow motion Conner turns around to face the room, from where it was empty before there was now another being standing in the centre of the room. Kon sneers at him, hating every living fibre in that man's body. Ra's Al Ghul was really starting to get on his nerves. His obsession with Tim was creepy and Kon wanted nothing more than to just hide his boyfriend away from the creepy old pervert.

How he got into the room without Conner noticing he has no idea. How long he'd been in the room for he hasn't got a clue. How he had escaped the Bats he's not sure. Conner does nothing more than glare at the man, wishing very hard that his laser vision was working because he'd be more than happy to incinerate the man right where he stands.

Opposite him, Ra's eyes him up. The man's eyes linger on him for a good while before they move over to Timmy. Conner glares harder and turns his body to act as a shield to stop Ra's from looking at him. In his arms Timmy tenses, any happiness they were both feeling just a moment ago has long disappeared out the window. Timmy starts trying to move his head from Conner's neck, trying to look up and take in the situation but Kon wasn't having any of it, he tightens his hold on the toddler just a fraction and makes sure to keep Timmy's head tucked into his neck. The last thing he needs is Timmy seeing the man whom is after him.

"Timothy, what have I said about behaving? Running away from me is poor behaviour and after this little show it looks like I'll be telling your parents after all."

As the man speaks Timmy makes a distressed whining sound into Conner's neck and Conner could feel the small body tremble in his arms. As he glares at the man before him he gently (as gently as he can despite all the anger and rage he's feeling) talks to Timmy. "He's not going to tell them Timmy, okay listen to me and not him. I promise he won't tell your parents."

It doesn't do much to soothe Timmy because the toddler was starting to shake like a leaf in the wind in his arms, but at least he's no longer trying to look up away from his neck. Conner keeps him tucked tightly against him. He's not letting go, not after what happened last time. Conner will not let him go. He's aware that Ra's probably has Kryptonite on him and he's aware that if Ra's pulls it out there's nothing Conner can do about it. He's still weak and recovering from the last encounter, how he'll manage another encounter so soon he's not sure. Preferably, he'd rather not find out at all. 

The man opposite him was still studying him, after a moment he starts to walk around the room in lazily strides, almost in a way that's supposed to be intimidating. Conner follows Ra's movements, always making sure that he can't get a good look at Timmy as he moves around.

"He seems very fond of you. Even after all the mistakes and flaws that are built within you, he still likes you," Ra's says to him, almost as if he's in thought, "Perhaps I could keep you as leverage. I'm sure the young detective would certainly behave himself once he finds out his misbehaviour has consequences."

As Kon was about to tells Ra's exactly what he thought about that idea another voice cuts through, silencing anything that Kon had on the tip of his tongue.

"Ra's that's enough!"

A black shadow cover's Kon's vision and when he next blinks he finds Batman standing in front of him, blocking his view of Ra's. Batman is standing with his back to him and Kon's just left wondering where on earth this man came from. He didn't even hear him come into the room, is there like a secret entrance to this room or something because they seriously need to stop doing that!

"What's wrong detective? Don't like the idea of someone else taking interest in one of your protege's?”

Batman let's out a low sound from the back of his throat which pretty much terrifies Conner because how on earth does that man do that? Then he couldn't help but jump when Batman suddenly addresses him without turning around, "Get going Superboy, you are no longer needed here. Robin, Red Hood and Nightwing, you'll accompany him. Take the jet and immediately leave. I'll find my own way back."

Getting over his shock, Conner hesitates before turning around and starts to leave the room, he figures it's probably for the best just to do what Batman orders. When he looks up he finds the other Bats all hovering by the doorway, all of them with their weapons drawn and ready to fight. Ignoring their looks, Kon makes his way over to the door and finally leaves the room. As he gets halfway down the corridor he hears footsteps behind him, Conner slows down enough so the Bats could catch up to him and lead the way to their jet.

They all get to the jet with ease, surprisingly there were no ambushes by ninja and nothing else got in their way meaning it was an easy journey to get to the vehicle. It’s certainly questionable but Kon will just take it, the sooner they’re gone the better. They all clamber inside the jet and Nightwing takes the controls, within minutes he has them airborne and on the way back to the Manor

A heavy, uncomfortable silence falls over them. Kon does his best to ignore it but it's really unsettling, especially when there are two pairs of eyes looking at him. He looks up away from the floor to find Damian scowling and glaring at him, Jason kept glancing his way before looking out of the front window again and Dick was sat motionless in the pilot’s seat as he navigates them back home. If Kon had his choice, he'd be anywhere but here, the tension is seriously disturbing him, granted it's not the first time he's been in such a high tension state with Tim's brothers but that doesn't make it any easier.

Kon turns his attention to the small body in his arms. Timmy was fast asleep and curled up as much as he could while being held, his face was still buried in Conner's neck and the meta could easily feel the little breaths against his skin now that he was focused on it, he also notices how Timmy's hands were clutching the shirt he was wearing like he wasn't letting go any time soon.

His heart aches for his de-aged boyfriend. Who knows what is going through his mind at the moment? A lot has happened over the last two nights, days, or whatever, he doesn't even know, all track of time has long gone out of the window since Timmy's been taken. A lot has happened so it’s a lot to take in, how Timmy is handling it all remains the question.

"Poor kid."

The voice brings Conner out of his thoughts, he turns to Jason who had spoken. The man was looking at Timmy in his arms with a frown, "This whole experience has probably fucked him up now. Who knows what is going through that kid’s head? I hope that it hasn't fucked him up enough that even Tim is affected by it. Actually, I hope he doesn't remember any of it at all when he finally comes back."

From the controls Dick sighs before commenting, "I agree Jace but we just don't know what Tim will remember and what he won't when he reverts back to his normal age. It's all touch and go at the moment. Of course Timmy is petrified, he's traumatized by what's happened but the best thing we can do is be there for him. It'll probably be difficult, but we'll do our best. None of us are strangers to nightmares and all of us has already dealt with Timmy and some nightmares, we can do it, we just got to make sure he feels secure and safe with us."

"Great idea Dick! Yeah, let's try and make him feel safe in the exact place he got attacked and kidnapped! We all had promised him that he'll be safe there with us all around and look what happened!" Jason shouts.

Conner winces at his words, because he isn't exactly wrong. How will Timmy feel going back to the Manor where he had been kidnapped? The annoying thing is that they won't know what or how Timmy is feeling until he wakes up. If he has nightmares then they can deal with it but it'll be dealing with everything else that'll be the trouble, but they'll just have to cross that bridge when they get to it. For now Timmy is asleep and it's probably best that it stays that way for the time being.

"Trust me Jason I know and I'm aware," Dick was saying, "But it's the best place for him at the moment, if we start moving him around it'll probably freak him out even more. Maybe when he's awake he could ask him if he wants to go elsewhere but for now we'll take him to the Manor, check him over and go from there."

Clearly not happy with that plan, Jason mutters under his breath, something about Dick being a golden boy dickhead, before moving himself so he's sat on the floor opposite Kon. Kon eyes the man for a second before his attention gets drawn away by the body in his arms.

Timmy starts to shift about as if he's uncomfortable, Conner does what he can to try and help Timmy relax again. In the end he's cradling him in his arms as if he was a baby, since he's sat on the floor he's got the help of his legs to support his weight (not that he needs help anyway but at least it's there). The four year old seems to calm down a bit but moments later he starts making whimpering noises and is shifting once again. Not entirely sure on what to do, Conner brings up his telekinesis and starts to gently stroke Timmy's hair in an attempt to calm him down and alongside that he makes quiet shushing noises. Thankfully it seems to do the trick because seconds later he's settling down again, Conner stops the shushing sounds but keeps up the telekinesis knowing he likes it.

Once it seems like he's fully settled in his arms Conner looks up and meets the eyes of both Jason and Damian. There's no heat in either of their stares this time, which Conner is both surprised but grateful for. "He'll be okay," he says to them, he's not sure why, it somehow just feels right, "We'll get through it."

"Yeah." Jason agrees as he looks down at Timmy once again.

Conner sees a softness forming around his face as he looks at his little brother. The look reminds him on how protective the man is of his brother and it almost makes him want to hand Timmy over to him so he could hold him, he doesn't though because he doesn't want to disturb Timmy from his sleep. A glance at Damian shows him that the teen is also looking at Timmy with the same form of softness as (or at least he isn't scowling at Conner or the toddler, so that means something right?) as Jason was. It makes Kon curious, did something happen between the two of them? If so, what?  Kon's sure he'll find out sooner or later so for now he doesn't press.

He rests his head against the side of the plane and closes his eyes for a moment. He's still not fully recovered so he's still lacking energy and still feels pretty sore and tired. Since they're going to be on this plane for a while he may as well rest while he can because he has a feeling the next few days aren't going to easy as they have a lot to deal with that surrounds Timmy and his current state of mind. It's bound to be stressful, but hopefully with the help of all the Bats they’ll get through it and help Timmy through his trauma.

They’ll just have to see what the next few days brings to them and go from there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I hope this chapter was okay and that it made sense, I'm not a hundred percent sure on this one because I know it's not the best one I've wrote but I wanted to get it out, so again I hope it was alright to read.
> 
> Believe it or not the end is in sight, I've got in mind about how I'll be ending it but I've yet to write it. How many chapters are left I'm not sure but we are getting closer to the end now. A major thank you everyone who has left a kudo or commented on this story, nearly 400 kudos, that's insane! Seriously though it's all appreciated and thank you for sticking by this with me. 
> 
> Stay tuned for the next update! :D


	22. Chapter 22

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The aftermath of the kidnapping.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to rRufus, there is now a [Russian translation](https://ficbook.net/readfic/7881854) for this story. Thanks again for doing it, it means so much that you're taking the time to translate this fic, it's amazing! 
> 
> Enjoy the chapter! :D

The couple of days following Timmy’s kidnapping were…. strange.

After getting back to the Manor Timmy thankfully remained asleep for a good portion of the day and well into the night. He woke up around mid-morning complaining he was hungry and how his arm was aching. Kon was the one who was with him, so he made Timmy a light snack and gave the toddler his medicine. Timmy was out like a light once again after that.

Throughout the last two days there were hints to how Timmy was doing mentally after the kidnapping. He wasn’t as bad as they thought he would be which was actually more worrying. Timmy didn’t appear to be petrified, he wasn’t having nightmares that left him screaming and crying and he wasn’t scared to be in the Manor where he had originally been attacked. For the most part it seemed like he was doing okay.

The only signs of trauma he’s shown is that he’s more quiet and reserved, (they kind of expected that to begin with anyway, so that wasn’t a surprise), he was a bit clinger to some of them as it appeared he never wanted to be left alone and the most major thing was that he wouldn’t go near Jason or Damian. Timmy would go into the same room as them but he didn’t want to be left alone with them.

That surprised them all, especially considering how much time spent with Damian while kidnapped and how much he had bonded with Jason.

It would be funny if it wasn’t so sad. Timmy was fine with everyone else, he spent most of his time with either Kon, Bruce or Dick, it was just those two he apparently couldn’t handle being around. They’ve all boiled it down to that he’s seen Jason and Damian take out those ninja in front of him and for whatever reason that’s the memory he’s burned into his mind out of the whole experience.

Jason was annoyed at it, not at Timmy but at the situation and especially at Ra’s Al Ghul, Damian on the other hand doesn’t appear to be bothered by it but Kon’s heard from some of the others that apparently he is quite upset with the situation as well.

At this current moment, three days after the kidnapping, Kon was spending some time with Timmy out in the garden. As he had promised, Kon was taking him flying. He didn’t go very fast or very high but Timmy appeared to be having the time of his life. His laughter and giggles was like music to Kon’s ears. He absolutely loved hearing Timmy laugh because it meant he was happy and having a good time, it was so much better than the alternative of him crying and sobbing.

Kon makes sure to keep it entertaining for both of them, while holding Timmy tightly he does a few spins and flips and even goes upside down for a bit. Anything he does has Timmy squealing with delight and it just makes Kon’s heart swell with happiness.

Right now Timmy was sat on his stomach fiddling with a few flowers he had picked from a tree just a moment ago. Kon watches him with amusement as a look of pure concentration takes over his delicate features as he studies the flowers in his hands.

As he does that Kon’s attention gets drawn away from the toddler and over to the Manor where all of its occupants were currently inside talking. What he caught onto was the mention of Tim’s, as well as Ra’s Al Ghul’s, name.

He tunes in his super hearing and listens to the Bats as they all talk.

“Okay Bruce, we’ve given you some space, some time to get your shit together, so you could do all of your files and case works and whatever else but now we want some answers. What happened with Ra’s? How are we going to stop him from coming after Tim?”

“Ra’s has been dealt with. That’s all you need to know.”

“That’s bullshit Bruce! We need to know what happened!” That was Dick who had shouted.

There’s moment pause but then Bruce’s gruff voice was speaking once again. “Where is Tim?”

“He’s outside with Conner. He won’t hear what we’re saying.” Dick answers him, by the tone he’s using Kon’s willing to bet that the man was scowling at his adoptive father. “Now quit dodging the question.”

“Ra’s won’t be coming after Tim any time soon. I’ve made sure of that, nor Talia for that matter. That’s all you need to know.”

“No it’s not Bruce! We need to know so we can plan and protect Tim in the future! If we don’t know then how are we supposed to plan?”

In the quiet moment after Dick’s outburst there was a third voice, which happens to be Jason, speaks up. His tone sounds somewhat hopeful as he asks, “Did you kill him?”

There was no reply to that particular question. If he knows the Bats well enough by now, he can at least guess that whoever is in the kitchen with Bruce, Dick and Jason were all looking at Jason with incredulous looks.

After a few beats Bruce was speaking up once again. “The less of you that know what happened the better. That’s final.”

Beyond the voices Conner hears a chair moving and steps retreating away from the kitchen. Kon guesses that’s the end of that particular discussion and turns back to Timmy who was still happily sat on his stomach playing with the flowers in his hands.

Trying to not jostle the small body sat on him Kon grabs his phone from his pocket and takes a couple of pictures of Timmy, it was a cute opportunity he couldn’t afford to miss. He will definitely be showing Tim the pictures once he’s back.

Kon puts his phone back in his pocket and looks at Timmy, “Hey kiddo, ready to back inside yet?”

Timmy looks up at the sound of his name and directs his wide blue eyes at Conner. He blinks owlishly at him for a moment before leaning forward and holding out one of the two flowers he’s been playing with. Not having much idea on what Timmy wants him to do with it, Kon gently plucks it out of his hand and holds it between his fingers. He gives the toddler a look as he does so.

Timmy smiles brightly at him, “I want you to have it.”

Conner couldn’t help but smile back after that explanation. “Thank you Timmy. It’s lovely.” The four-year-old’s smile somehow brightened even more after the gratitude. He then mumbles something that Kon couldn’t even catch. “What was that Timmy?” He asks gently.

“Do you think everyone else would like one?” He repeats almost bashfully.

Conner nods, his grin never fading, “I think that they would all like that a lot. Shall we go and choose some more?”

After seeing Timmy nod, Conner manoeuvres them around so he was once again holding onto Timmy by the waist. He comes out of his lying position and straightens up before heading back over to the tree where they originally got the flowers from.

With great patience Conner helps Timmy pick out flowers for all the family. It was a very amusing task, especially since Timmy wanted nothing but the biggest, brightest and the most beautiful flowers on the tree.

Before floating them back down onto the ground Conner checks with Timmy that they got everyone, “So bud, we got everyone? Shall we double check?”

Timmy nods enthusiastically and starts shuffling through the bundle of flowers in his hands. “There’s one for Bruce, Alfred, Dick, Steph and Cass.”

Conner’s smile drops a little after hearing the list of names. “Hey Timmy, you’re missing two people there. What about Damian and Jason? Don’t you want to get them a flower each?”

Timmy goes quiet in his arms, his smile disappearing. Conner sighs before he gets an idea. Moving close to the tree and makes his way into it and finds a branch to place Timmy on. Making sure that the toddler wouldn’t fall Conner hovers in front of him and tries to get his attention.

“Hey Timmy, you wanna tell me what’s wrong?” His tone was soft as he spoke, hoping to ease Timmy into talking to him. It’s clear that this sudden behaviour links back to Ra’s and the kidnapping, Conner is hoping that he could get the kid to open up about it.

In a typical Tim fashion, he shrugs and shakes his head while quietly muttering, “Nothing’s wrong.”

Conner carries on looking at him, undeterred he says, “Well it doesn’t seem like it bud. You can talk to me if there is something wrong. Is it to do with Jason and Damian? Why don’t you want to give them a flower when you’re giving everyone else one?”

Timmy picks at one of the flower heads. For a long time he is silent and when Conner was about to give up with trying to get him to open up, Timmy was speaking. “They scare me.”

A mixture of feelings run through him at that point, Kon’s happy that Timmy is finally talking to him, but a little disheartened at the words he’s hearing. “They scare you? Why do they scare you?”

Timmy wouldn’t look at him as he talks, “They hurt people, they might hurt me too.”

Kon takes a moment to consider his reply before he reaches out and gently strokes a hand through Timmy’s hair. “Timmy can you look at me.” He asks. It takes a moment but eventually two blue eyes met his own. “I know it may seem like that to you, but I promise they won’t hurt you. The people they hurt were bad people, they would never purposely hurt you.”

Timmy blinks at him, trying to understand what’s been said, “They only hurt bad people?”

Conner smiles, “That’s right. They only hurt the ones who deserved it. Those people, the ones who took you, were bad people.”

“So they aren’t going to hurt me?”

“No, not at all.”

Timmy still didn’t look like he was convinced, so Conner pushes a little more. “You want to know how I can tell that they hurt you, it’s because they care about you. Think back to last week, remember reading bedtime stories with Jason before you fell asleep? I believe you were reading The Hobbit then. Did it seem like he was going to hurt you then?”

A hesitant yet silent headshake was his answer.

“Okay so with Damian, did it seem like he was going to hurt you when you were together in the same room, when he was giving you your medicine? Did it seem like he was going to hurt you when you both were drawing in the kitchen days ago?” There’s another pause between them as Kon lets Timmy digest his words. After a minute or two Kon speaks again, “They won’t hurt you Timmy. They care about you.”

Even after that Timmy still didn’t too convinced, but he looks up at Conner and asks, “So do they work like Batman? They beat the baddies and put them away?”

Conner couldn’t help but chuckle at that, “Something like that, yeah. And I can tell you now that if you give them a flower each they would really appreciate it.”

Timmy shrugs his shoulders again, so Conner gently pokes him in the arm, “I can be there with you if you want. I’m not asking you to stay with them, just to give them a flower. You’ll see that they aren’t all bad.”

There’s another long pause between them as Timmy works out what he wants to do. In the end he’s nodding and saying, “Okay.”

Kon grins, “Yeah? Brilliant, that’s really good of you Timmy.” He leans forward and places a light kiss on his forehead before scooping the tiny body back into his arms. “Let’s get two more flowers and get back inside.”

5 minutes later they were walking back into the Manor. Conner was leading them through the place as they try and work out where everyone is. After not finding anyone for 5 minutes Kon ends up using his super hearing to locate them all. Following the sounds of their voices Kon leads Timmy to the library.

They find most of the Bats all scattered around on the plush sofas doing different things. The only ones not there were Bruce, Jason and Alfred. Conner guides Timmy into the room and takes a seat in a space next to Dick.

When Conner sits down Dick looks up from his phone and smiles at him, his attention then goes to Timmy. When Dick sees Timmy carrying something he sits up straighter and faces the toddler, a warm smile plastered on his face, “What you got there Timmy? Have fun in the garden have we?”

Timmy looks up at him and nods, a tiny smile making it’s way onto his face, “Yeah.” Then wordlessly he takes one of the flowers in his hands and thrusts it out to Dick. Immediately understanding what he was doing Dick reaches out and grabs the flower.

“Is that for me?”

Timmy nods his head shyly and Kon could see a light blush working it’s way over his cheeks.

“Aw Timmy,” Dick coos, “That’s really sweet. Thank you.” The man then reaches out and drags Tim close to him so he could press a light kiss on top of his head. After Dick had let him go, Timmy makes his way to the other side of the room to where Cass and Steph were sat together.

Both of the girls watch with amusement as the toddler walks over to them. Once he gets there he holds out a flower to Steph and when she takes it with a smile he holds out one to Cass. With their flowers in hand they each press a kiss on his head, Steph even gives him a quick hug.  

Timmy then walks back over to Kon and stands beside him. There were still four flowers left in his hands. Kon glances up, the others were watching him and Timmy and glancing over at Damian who was invested in a book. Kon looks over there before looking back down at the toddler. He carefully takes the flowers from his hands and places them next to him leaving only one in Timmy’s hand. When he gets a confused look, Conner smiles and points over to where Damian was, “Remember what we talked about? Why don’t you go over and give him his flower?”

Timmy glances at him with wide eyes, they dart over to Damian before they settle back on Kon. Kon sees the fear and worry in them. He couldn’t help but smile, he’s thought this before but damn he’ll think it again, Timmy is just too cute.

He reaches out and turns him in the direction of his brother. When Timmy doesn’t move Kon gives him a nudge and that seems to do the trick because then Timmy is walking over to Damian with the flower in hand. He gets to the seat and Kon is half expecting Damian to just ignore him but thankfully the teenager does not, when Timmy stands near him Damian straightens up on the couch and closes the book he had been reading to give the toddler his full attention.

Kon watches as Timmy looks up at him with wide eyes. He slowly holds the flower out to Damian who eyes it for a moment before taking it. Damian studies the flower before looking up at the rest of the room, everyone had their eyes on the two of them. Seeming to understand what was going on Damian looks back down at Timmy and smiles, “Thank you Timothy. It… means a lot.”

Seeing as he’s done what he’s been told to Timmy instantly makes his way back over to Kon, it was like he couldn’t wait to get away from Damian. The teenager doesn’t seem bothered by it at all, but Conner’s pretty sure that there was a frown appearing on his face as he picks his book back up and continues to read it.

Kon bends down and presses a kiss on Timmy’s temple, “Well done Timmy. I’m proud of you.” He tells the child. Timmy shyly smiles and even blushes at the praise. He’s then reaching over Kon and grabbing the three remaining flowers. He looks expectantly at Kon, understanding what Timmy wants to do he laughs, “Alright come on. We’ll go find the others.”

As he stands up Dick says, “They’re in the kitchen. Or at least Bruce and Alfred were, I’m not sure where Jason is.”

Kon nods his thanks and starts to lead Timmy to the kitchen. A minute later they arrive at their destination to find all three family members they were in fact looking for all talking. Well Bruce and Alfred were talking, Jason was over by the oven cooking something that smelt really good and made Kon suddenly feel hungry.

Kon leads Timmy further into the kitchen and before he could do anything the toddler is off like a rocket, he instantly goes over to Bruce and Alfred wearing a giant smile. The two men stop their conversation when they see Timmy approaching and smile as the toddler reaches them. Timmy grabs one of the flowers in his hands and holds it out to Alfred.

The elderly man takes it and examines it, “Thank you Master Timmy, it’s a lovely flower. Nice and colourful wouldn’t you agree?”

Timmy nods shyly, speaking out a quiet “Yeah” before running over to Bruce. As he had done with the others, Timmy holds out the flower for Bruce to take.

Bruce takes it in his enormous hand and holds it in his palm. “It is a lovely flower, and beautiful colours too. Did you pick these out Timmy?”

Timmy nods proudly, the smile on his face brightening up to the point where he was even showing teeth. Bruce grins back and ruffles his hair. Tim lets out a squeak before running back over to Conner with only one flower left in his hands. Conner crouches down and points to it, “There’s one more left Timmy. Remember who it’s for?” The smile drops from his face as Timmy nods. “Okay so like you did with Damian, go and give this one to Jason. I’ll be here the whole time okay.”

Conner nudges Timmy with his hand as he stands back up. The toddler moves on his own over to third man in the room.

“Hey Jason, someone wants to give you a little something.” Conner calls out.

The man turns away from the oven and looks over at him, Conner points to where Timmy was slowly edging towards him. Jason’s eyes widen at the sight of the toddler but he nods in acknowledgement. The man turns back to the oven and grabs something before slowly crouching down so he’s at the toddler’s level.

Noticing Timmy’s hesitation Jason gives him an easy smile and says, “Hey Timmy I heard that you got something for me? Well I also have something for you too.”

They all watch as Timmy slowly goes towards the man, still nervous about getting close. Jason recognises this and holds up a chocolate chip cookie. “I made these just earlier, you’re welcome to have it.”

That seems to do the trick in getting Timmy closer to him. Once in reaching distance, Timmy gingerly grabs the cookie from Jason’s grasp and clutches onto it tightly. He then seems to remember that he also has something for Jason in return. Switching hands, Timmy holds the flower out to Jason who gently plucks it from the tiny fingers.

“Thank you Timmy, that’s really thoughtful of you.”

“You’re welcome,” Timmy says quietly, almost shyly, “Thanks for the cookie.”

Jason grins at him, “No problem, just enjoy it yeah?”

Timmy nods before running back over to Conner. When he reaches the meta he puts his arms and Conner bends down to pick him up. Placing the tiny body on his hip Kon grins to the rest of the room, “We’ll catch you guys later, see you all at dinner!”

With that Conner leaves kitchen with Timmy on his hip who was quietly nibbling on the cookie Jason had given him.

* * *

Dick was lying on his bed with a notepad and pen in hand when a knock comes from the door. Frowning, he places the pad and pen down before getting up and going over to the door to open it. He finds Conner holding Timmy in his arms on the other side. It was cute seeing Timmy dressed in his batman pyjama’s and wrapped up in a fluffy blanket but strange because the kid was supposed to be in bed. Conner had taken him to bed over three hours ago, so why the meta in front of him now?

“Hey Dick,” Conner starts off somewhat nervously, “Uh, sorry to disturb you but I got a call from the others and I need to go. I was hoping that you’d look after Timmy. He’s refusing to go to sleep but since I’ve got to go would you mind taking him?”

Dick blinks at him for a moment before smiling, “Of course, it’s no trouble.” He holds out his arms and lets Conner transfer the toddler over to him.

Timmy makes a noise of protest as he settles in Dick’s arms, “Conner.”

Conner ruffles his hair, “I’ll be back Timmy, I promise.”

“You’re leaving?”

Even Dick winces at the pain coming through Timmy’s voice. He sounded so hurt and betrayed with Conner leaving.

The meta gives the toddler a sympathetic look, he cups his cheek and says, “I’ve just got to save some people that’s all. I’ll be back before you know it okay? I promise I’ll be back.”

Timmy stays silent and Dick shares a look with Conner, “I’ve got it. Go.”

Conner nods, presses a kiss to Timmy’s head before running down the corridor. The pair of them watch him go and once he’s out of sight Dick takes them into his bedroom. He was originally planning his patrol route for the next for few days but since there was nothing major going on (except the mystery to what Bruce had done to Ra’s) he could take the night off and not bother at all with patrol. It’s for a purpose as well so it’s not all bad.

After moving the notepad and pen from his bed, Dick climbs on top of it and rests against the headboard, he puts Timmy in his lap and looks down at the toddler in question.

“What’s wrong Timmy? Why don’t you want to go to sleep?”

Timmy doesn’t answer him for a while, his attention was purely on the edge of the blanket. Dick has to gently prompt him in order to get an answer.

“The bad man is going to come again.”

Dick frowns as his heart breaks. “He won’t come after you Timmy, not anymore.”

“But he will.”

“No, he won’t.” Dick shakes his head, refusing to accept it. He can’t promise Tim that Ra’s won’t appear but he’s got to try and _convince_ him that he won’t.

“I’m scared.”

“I know baby, I know. But you’re here with us and we’ll do everything in our power to make sure that you stay with us okay. We got you back last time alright, that shows that we won’t give up on you. We love you buddy, don’t forget that.”

Dick presses a kiss to Timmy’s head and hugs him a little tighter. It’s clear now that getting kidnapped has started to take a toll on the kid. It’s happened much later than they expected it too, three nearly four days afterwards, but it’s clear that Timmy can’t hold it back any more. Avoiding Jason and Damian was the start of it and now there’s paranoia and possibly trust issues mixed around with it as well.

He rocks his arms lightly, hoping to soothe the kid. “How about we stick a film on my laptop? You can choose whatever one you like. We can stay up here and just cuddle alright, you don’t have to go to sleep, I won’t make you but we are going to get into bed to watch it. That sound fair to you?”

Timmy nods his head in agreement and Dick places him down on the mattress so he can get everything set up for the film so they can watch it comfortably. The toddler ends up choosing _How to Train your Dragon_ for them to watch and they quickly settle down underneath Dick’s covers to watch it.

Dick keeps a close eye on the kid as the film plays, he barely even watches it because of how focused on Timmy he is. Constantly making sure that he’s alright, making sure that he’s comfy enough and making sure he’s warm enough as well as feeling safe.

It wasn’t until the second half of the film that the kid starts to fall asleep. Dick has to give him his credit for the willpower that’s taking him to stay awake for this long, but it seems like his body is finally taking over because Dick could see the toddler’s eyes starting to drop as he nods off. It only takes another 10 minutes for the kid to finally conk out.

Once he was unconscious Dick carefully moves him to the middle of the bed and climbs out of it himself. He gives his body a good stretch, (he was starting to go numb and get cramps from where Timmy was lying on him) then afterwards he shuts his laptop off.

He watches Timmy sleep for moment, making sure that the kid was out of it before making a move to leave the room. He needs to walk off some energy and to give his legs another kind of stretch, he wouldn’t be long. Just to the kitchen and back, he’ll grab a cookie or two while he’s down there.

He ended up getting three cookies and a water bottle. He figured that he’d give one, or even two of them, to Timmy. It seems like the kid could do with a pick me up and a sweet treat will hopefully help do that.

As he turned into the hallway containing his bedroom a loud scream freezes him in place, then seconds later before he even knew what he was doing, Dick was sprinting the rest of the way to his room. He flings the door open and runs inside to find Timmy still screaming and crying on the bed sheets.

Guilt fills his heart as he dumps his goodies on his desk before rushing over and taking the crying child into his lap. He wraps Timmy up in a hug and begins to gently rock him while gently shushing him and telling him it’s just a dream and that he’s okay.

Dick feels horrible. He leaves for like 5 minutes but within those 5 minutes Timmy had woken up from a nightmare, clearly petrified and is now in hysterics. Only if he hadn’t left, he could have been there for him when he needed him or at least he should have taken Timmy with him down to the kitchen. Stupid. He had been stupid.

“It’s okay Timmy. It was just a dream. It’s okay, I’m here now alright? Okay? Shhhhh.”

It didn’t seem like his words or actions were getting through to the toddler, Timmy simply carried on bawling his eyes out. Every hitched breath and every sob just made his heart ache. It wasn’t fair.

Through Timmy’s crying and his own comforting words it took a while to realise that Timmy was saying something. It sounded broken and croaky but eventually Dick could make out the words “I want mommy and daddy.”

And didn’t that just break his heart even more?

“I’m sorry buddy but they’re not here right now.”

Unsurprisingly his words weren’t taken to easily. Timmy somehow cries even more into Dick. Dick shushes him and runs a hand through his hair while the other holds him firmly against his chest. After a few more moments of Timmy still not calming down, Dick stands up and cradles him close, he adds a light bounce to his rocking in hopes that it’ll ease the toddler.

When Timmy’s cries eventually die down Dick takes a moment to stop his bouncing and peers down at the toddler, gently moving away some hair from his face he asks, “Wanna tell me what’s got you all upset Timmy? What’s wrong bud?”

“The – the bad man’s go - going to get – get me!” He sobs out and that’s when the next wave of tears start rolling down his face.

Dick sighs and presses Timmy’s head back into his and shoulder. “He’s not going to get you kiddo.” Dick repeats again. “I swear he’s not going to get you again.”

Timmy wasn’t listening to him. The toddler was too wrapped up in his emotions to be hearing Dick’s words. After a while the sentence “I want mommy and daddy” comes back. Hearing Timmy sob those words out almost makes him want to sob, it’s heart breaking hearing his innocent voice beg for something that is no longer there.

“I know you want your parents buddy but they’re not here.” Dicks says almost crying himself. He remembers some of his first nights in the Manor and waking up calling out for his parents, only to remember what had happened and minutes later for Bruce to rush into his bedroom asking what was wrong.

“Hey, shall I get Bruce? Would you like to see Bruce?” Maybe another parent figure would be better in this situation rather than him. He’s going to trust that Bruce will have an idea on what to do, he knows the man isn’t always reliable when it comes to emotional tendencies but this time he’s trusting his adoptive father.

Timmy doesn’t respond to him straight away, it even takes a minute or two but eventually he’s nodding his head. Dick immediately grabs his comm from his bedside table and puts it into his ear. Calling down to the Cave, Alfred responds to it.

“Master Dick what can I do for you? Is everything alright?”

Dick swallows the lump in his throat before talking, “Everything’s fine Alf, I just need to know where Bruce is, that’s all.”

“Master Bruce is in fact here on the computer. Shall I pass on a message for you?”

Dick opens his mouth to respond but Tim lets out another loud sob that had Dick instantly shushing him. A few seconds later he turns his attention back onto his comm. “Can you get Bruce to come up here please. It’s Timmy.”

He figures that Alfred must have hear Timmy sob because the elderly man lets out an “ah, I see” before making a humming noise and saying, “Of course Master Dick, he’s on his way up now.”

“Thanks Alfred.”

Knowing that Bruce was on his way up Dick turns the comm off and takes it out of his ear before putting it back in it’s usual spot. He then resumes the light rocking and shushing of getting Timmy to calm down. It seems that Timmy has calmed down for a moment as he’s no longer letting out sobs however his breaths were still coming out uneven and tears were still rolling down his face.

They stay like that for who knows how long until Bruce shows up knocking on Dick’s bedroom door. The man lets himself inside and takes a moment to digest the scene in front of him. Dick locks eyes with him and they have a silent conversation, one of which Dick is telling him that his fatherly duties have been called for and how he better not fuck this up.

At the end of it Bruce sends him an unamused glare, Dick couldn’t help but grin at it. The grin on his face doesn’t last long as Timmy let’s out a whimper from his arms. Dick looks sadly down at him before glancing back up at Bruce.

“He’s had a bad nightmare and has been calling out for his parents, but they aren’t here. I’ve tried calming him down myself but it hasn’t done much, I figured you’d be the next best bet.”

Bruce nods knowingly. “Of course,” he steps forward and gains Timmy’s attention by rubbing a finger lightly over his flushed, teared stained cheek. “Hey Timmy, you want to come with me buddy?”

Timmy turns his gaze to the man, his wide eyes still full of tears, and nods. He loosens his hold on Dick and stretches out towards Bruce, the man easily takes him out of Dick’s arms and cradles him in his own. Bruce lets out his own _ssshhhh_ as Timmy whimpers once again.

“It’s really bad,” Dick says like it wasn’t obvious, “It’s just suddenly come on full force. He refused to go to sleep with Conner earlier tonight and the moment he did go to sleep he woke up screaming. I tried to get him to calm down but it just wasn’t working. The explosion we’ve all been waiting for has finally arrived.”

Bruce doesn’t respond right away. The man’s attention was on the toddler in his arms. Dick watches as Bruce runs a caring hand over through Timmy’s hair and as it rubs his back.

“Bruce.” Dick prompts wanting the man to say something.

“I know Dick.” He finally says now looking up at the eldest of the children. “You’ve done well but I’ll take it from here, get some rest yourself and I’ll see you in the morning for breakfast.”

Dick takes a deep breath before letting it out. His job was done for the night. “Okay Bruce.”

The man heads for the door but not before grabbing the blanket that Timmy originally came to Dick in. He grabs the handle and opens it up, sending Dick a smile he gently closes it and leaves Dick in his now silent room.

Dick moves over to the bed and heavily sits down. He runs a hand over his face before flopping backwards feeling mentally and emotionally exhausted. Who knew that kids were a lot of work when they weren’t happy. He knew it wasn’t going to be easy but after that, Dick didn’t realise how hard it actually might be to help Timmy get through this after all.


	23. Chapter 23

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dick's concerned for Timmy's well being, Conner comes home and has a bit of bonding time with him and Bruce has news for them all.

The next morning he was anxious. Once Bruce had come in to collect Timmy Dick couldn’t relax. All he could do was repeat the sounds of the sobbing toddler in his ears and wish he could have done more to help him through his trauma. It’s easy to say that sleep didn’t come lightly. However his body must have won the battle because he was opening his eyes up to sunlight lighting up his room and the smell of breakfast foods reaching his nose.

Dick had gotten up, had a quick shower and changed into clean clothes before going down to greet the others who had already gathered in the kitchen. He was surprised when he didn’t see Bruce or Timmy down yet and that’s what made him anxious.

For once he keeps to himself and dives into Alfred’s luxurious breakfast spread. Just as he was about to finish his plate off Jason speaks up from where he was sat across the table, “What’s up with you dickie-bird? Normally you’re all chirpy in the mornings, today you’re just downright depressed.”

Dick glances at his brother and shrugs, he puts the last piece of food in his mouth and chews before swallowing. “I just didn’t sleep well.”

Jason makes a disbelieving sound, “Uh huh sure.”

“Grayson.”

Dick looks over to where Damian was sat to find the teen glaring at him. He raises an eyebrow in question, not really in the mood to be dealing with his shit this morning.

“Aren’t you the one always saying to speak what’s on your mind, something about how it helps you get it off your chest and makes you feel better afterwards? Isn’t that what you should be doing right now?”

Dick rolls his eyes and scowls at his plate, hating the fact that his words are being used against him. It’s easy being the happy one in family full of grumpy gits but as soon as you’re a grumpy git with them they gang up on you.

“Yeah Dick,” Jason joins in with a grin, “Stop being a hypocrite and tell us what’s on your mind.”

He lets out a huff and glares at his younger brothers, “Conner came into my room last night and gave me Timmy because he had to go on a mission with the Titans. Timmy refused to sleep claiming he’s scared because ‘the bad man’s going to get him’, I tried to reassure him that no, Ra’s was not going to get him. Soon enough he fell asleep but within minutes he was awake screaming and crying from a nightmare. I tried to calm him down but in the end I got Bruce because I didn’t know what else to do.”

His brothers go speechless at that and rightly so. The fact that Timmy was screaming and crying was enough to put any of them on edge, they all hated seeing their brother in distress and the kidnapping days ago was certainly not helping matters.

“So excuse my behaviour this morning because seeing Timmy in that state of distress has kind of freaked me out alright.”

His brothers simply continue eating their breakfasts and now there’s tension in the air. It stays like that for a good twenty minutes until they hear footsteps approaching the kitchen door. They all turn around and watch as Bruce enters in the room dressed in sweat pants and a sweatshirt with Timmy in his arms who was still dressed in his Justice League pyjama’s.

Dick takes note that they both look tired (though with Bruce that’s nothing unusual, this time it just seems that bit more obvious) and Timmy was resting his head on Bruce’s shoulder clutching his blanket he had brought with him.

“Morning.” Bruce greets them all as he walks over to the coffee machine.

They all chorus back their greetings and watch as their adoptive father makes himself a coffee. After he had done that he comes over to the table and sits down in his normal chair and places Timmy on his lap, rearranging the child so he was sat on his knees facing the table.

Bruce reaches over and grabs two plates before looking down at the child who was quietly sat in his lap, “What would you like to eat Timmy?”

Timmy simply shrugs and doesn’t say anything. Bruce lets out a sigh, “Well you have to eat something son.”

“I’m not hungry.” Came the quiet reply.

Dick frowns at that, he knows (even from experience) that not being hungry or at least claiming to not being hungry is a sign of trauma. He was eating just fine yesterday before night-time came around.

“You’ve got to eat something Timmy, you’ll make yourself sick otherwise. How about a croissant?”

As he speaks the man reaches over the table and grabs said food, he puts it on one of the plates in front of him, he then proceeds to cut it in half and holds it up to the toddlers mouth. Predictably Timmy wasn’t having any of it, he turns his head away in refusal.

Dick watches as Bruce frowns, it would be funny watching Bruce deal with an uncooperative child only if the child wasn’t Tim and particularly after what has recently happened. Bruce then takes a small bite of the croissant and holds it closer to Timmy’s mouth trying to prompt him into eating it. In the end either Timmy gets annoyed with Bruce’s persistence or he actually does now feel hungry because he takes the croissant from Bruce and begins to nibble on it.

Once seeing that Timmy was now eating Bruce takes care of himself and piles his plate up with what’s been left over.

“How was he last night Bruce, after you left my room?” Dick asks. It probably wasn’t best idea to ask his adoptive father about the toddler when he was present but Dick just had to know.

Bruce looks over at him and stares like he’s calculating Dick’s reasons for asking. He finishes the food in his mouth before speaking, “Well it took some time but once he told me what was wrong and what was scaring him he eventually calmed down though he refused to sleep. I ended up reading him Peter Pan hoping that his fondness of flying would connect him with the characters and help him to relax. Thankfully it worked and he dozed off.”

Bruce’s attention was pulled away from Dick when Timmy finished his part of the croissant. His adoptive father poured Timmy a drink of orange juice in a small plastic cup that Alfred had left on the table and gave it to him. This time Timmy took the drink without any prompting, thankfully seeming to have found his appetite again because after he was done with the drink he immediately went for the other half of the croissant.  

Seeing that Timmy was satisfied with the pastry Bruce turns back to him.

“He was asleep for about half an hour before he woke up crying again. Just the same as before, I calmed him down and read some more of Peter Pan until he fell asleep again. It went like that four times until the last one when he fell asleep and stayed asleep for 3 hours straight. When he woke up without crying we came down here.”

They both look down to the kid as he finishes the second half of his food and begins reaching out for a another one. It was amusing watching him stretch for the plate when it was just out of his reach, Jason takes pity on him however and nudges the plate towards him and receives a smile in thanks. Bruce takes over then, cutting it in half just like he had done with the first one and allows Timmy to eat it in his own time.

“Hey Timmy, how did you like Peter Pan? Is it a good story?” Jason asks the toddler with a rare fond smile.

From Bruce’s lap Timmy nods, “Yeah.”

“Yeah? What’s your favourite bit so far?”

“I like the bit where they fly to neverland and where they meet the lost boys.”

 “Oh yeah? What about the bit where…”

Dick smiles as Jason rambles on to Timmy about Peter Pan. It was nice to see Timmy smiling and even giggling at times as Jason dramatically re-enacts parts of the book to the toddler. He’s also glad that it seems like Timmy’s gotten over his fear of Jason, now finding the man like a brother once again like before the kidnapping ever happened. It was small steps in the right direction.

A glance at Bruce shows that he must have the same thoughts and feelings because a rare smile was plastered on his face as he watches his two sons interact. Dick then turns his attention to Timmy who was happily chatting away to Jason, his whole face has lit up and he was smiling widely, the sudden contrast compared to what he was like minutes ago was mind boggling. It was strange how children could just jump from one mood to another in a matter of seconds.

Eventually Jason and Tim finish up their conversation on Peter Pan as Bruce announces that they all should get ready for the day. Bruce takes Timmy with him to his room so they could get cleaned up while Dick, Jason and Damian all help out and clear the breakfast dishes (it wasn’t fair to let Alfred do it all). Once that was done they all part ways and to go and do their individual things.

Almost five hours later, after a workout, a long hot shower, after doing some paper work and after some lunch, Dick gets to spend some time with Timmy. Well sort of. At this current moment said child was sound asleep on his lap while he stares at the cartoon playing in front of him.

As much as he loves the sight of Timmy asleep on him, after the night before it kind of makes him nervous because what if he wakes up screaming again? What if he wakes up calling out for his mom and dad? After a moment he rubs his hand down his face, he can’t believe what he’s worrying over and how much this has shaken him.

He freezes when he feels Timmy stir in his lap. The kid slowly opened up his eyes with a quiet confused noise. Dick allows him to wake up on his own because he really doesn’t want to startle him, it’s the last thing he needs right now is for Timmy to become panicked and scared. Eventually the kid turns and looks up at him, as he does Dick offers him a small smile and runs a hand through Timmy’s hair.

“Hey kiddo, welcome back to the land of the living. How you feeling?”

Timmy shrugs and stays curled up in his lap, Dick watches as the kid clutches the blanket that’s over him even tighter (he’s been carrying that blanket around with him all day and apparently refuses to let go of it, it’s the same blanket he had with him last night when Conner passed him over to him).

“Anyway if you’re hungry Timmy there’s some lunch that’s been made for you if you want it.”

Bruce had told him when he and Timmy had sat down together that Timmy hasn’t eaten lunch yet, apparently the toddler was once again refusing food and also because he had been napping. Now that he’s woken up Dick’s going to try and get him to eat something.

Timmy blinks his wide blue eyes and stares at Dick, after a long time the kid was eventually nodding. It causes Dick to smile, “Well that’s good, but I’m going to need you to sit up for me, you’re not allowed to eat while lying down, it isn’t good for your stomach.”

At that Timmy frowns but he does move, staying in Dick’s lap he sits up right and leans against Dick’s chest. Dick reaches over to grab the plate that’s been sat on the counter next to him and places it in Timmy’s lap for the toddler to have easy access to. The plate only contained a small selection of fruit and four small triangle-cut ham sandwiches.

Dick watches as Timmy picks up a grape and places it in his mouth and as his attention is drawn to the screen still playing the movie he had chosen just under a hour ago. It goes silent between them as Timmy works his way through his lunch and as Dick observes Timmy as well as watching the TV with semi interest.

“Conner!”

The sudden shout has Dick snapping too. He blinks his eyes open and looks around to find the TV now showing the credits to the film they had been watching and Timmy who was still sat on his lap but now had his arms stretched out to Conner who was just walking into the room. He must have fallen asleep while watching the film if the credits rolling were anything to go by, _oops._

In front of him Conner stretches his own arms out and picks Timmy up off of his lap. Now that the toddler was off him Dick could tell that his legs were dead and starts shifting them about trying to get blood circulating through them once again. As he does that he sends the meta a smile, “How did it go?”

From where he was bobbing up and down with Timmy now on his hip Conner looks at him, “It went well, was a success at least. No one died, no one got severely hurt fortunately but the place kind of got abolished…. So yeah.”

Conner shrugs in the way that says _what can you do?_ and Dick laughs lightly at that, knowing the action and meaning of it all too well. He used it a lot back in his own Titan days.

“That’s good though,” He comments, “Since no one got hurt or killed and you did what you needed to that’s all that matters. What’s it like without Tim there?”

Conner smiles at the toddler in his arms as Timmy pats his face looking for his attention, “Admittedly it’s weird, we don’t have a structure or so much as a solid plan when he’s not with us but we managed. However Cassie and Bart are both getting suspicious, I’m pretty sure that they know something else is going on by now but I’m not telling them anything until Tim’s back to normal, they’ll be pissed because of what they missed but by now it’s not worth it. Plus I think it’s probably best that Timmy doesn’t meet anyone new at this moment of time.”

Dick nods his head in agreement and understanding.

“So how was he last night after I left?” Conner asks, his grin fading slightly as he talks. Timmy continues to happily pet Conner’s face with his tiny hands as the meta keeps up the bobbing and rocking movements.

Dick’s own smile disappears as he’s once again reminded of what occurred the previous night. He runs as hand over his face and slouches back into the cushions he’s sat against. “Honestly, not brilliant. When he did finally fall asleep he woke up minutes later screaming and crying because of a nightmare. I tried to get him to calm down but in the end I went and got Bruce because I couldn’t. Bruce then took him into his own room and apparently he slept on and off but every time he woke up it was because of a nightmare. However today he seems to be doing better, at least with Jason, his appetite is a little funny but apart from that he seems to be doing fine.”

Conner looks away from him and down at the toddler in his arms, Timmy was still smiling up at him and even giggling a little bit. Conner smiles softly and kisses Timmy’s head.

“Hey Conner?” Timmy says.

“Yeah Timmy?”

“Can we go flying? I would like to go flying please.”

“Yeah? Well firstly have you had your lunch?”

Timmy nods and points over at the sofa. “Yes.”

Dick looks down beside him to find Timmy’s plate which was now completely empty. He must have finished all of his food off when Dick had been sleeping but at least he did in fact finish it all.

Taking that as the positive answer it was Conner nods, “Then sure bud, we can go flying as long as Dick is okay with us going.”

Dick smiles and waves at the meta to go ahead, “I don’t mind there’s a few bits and pieces that I need to go and get done anyway.”

Conner grins at the answer and starts heading for the door, “Thanks Dick, come on Timmy, let’s go for a fly.”

Dick watches him leave and continues to sit in the room alone for a moment. Conner was certainly helping Timmy out and his progression in healing after what had happened. Even without his memories Tim was fond of Conner. He grins at that thought, there’s some more material he could tease Tim with now, how they were always meant to be together no matter what, the proper little soulmates that the two of them make. It was sickeningly adorable.

He finally makes himself move off of the couch he’s been slumped on and moves to turn everything off and to put it all away. After the room was tidy he leaves and heads down for the Batcave, he wasn’t lying when he said he had things to do.

* * *

“Well it seems like the fracture has nearly completely healed by now so that means we’re able to take the splint off his arm and keep it off for good.” Alfred tells them as he places the portable x-ray machine on the table.

Conner looks up from Timmy, who was sat in his lap, and over at the butler, “Really? That’s great to hear, especially after everything’s that’s happened at least his arm has somehow fully healed in the midst of it all.”

“Indeed Master Conner.”

Conner focuses on Timmy once again. The toddler was currently playing around with a phone and using the camera app, he was taking photos of literally anything and adding all different kind of effects to the images.

It’s been a few days by now since the whole nightmare fiasco. While Timmy did still have trouble sleeping, it wasn’t as bad as what it had been that night three days ago. His appetite has mostly returned to normal and he was once again comfortable around both Damian and Jason on his own. All of these were little steps in his progression of healing and he was getting better each day to which everyone was pleased about.

Today however Alfred had called Conner down from his room, where he had been with Timmy watching a children’s film, in order to do a check up on his arm. It’s just then that he realises that it’s been about two and a half weeks since Tim fractured his arm and a further three weeks since the whole de-aging thing even started. To him it feels like it hasn’t even been that long, so much has happened during those weeks that it all kind of blends together.

Alfred had called him into the kitchen where he was waiting with a portable x-ray machine brought up from the cave. The elderly man had thought it was time to check Timmy’s arm and with the toddler’s permission he did so. Timmy was patient and cooperative which made it all easier, he answered Alfred’s questions with honesty and was just genuinely well behaved.

Conner had retrieved Timmy’s phone while they had been waiting for the results of the x-ray, it kept him occupied and not waiting around in boredom. They didn’t have to wait very long however because minutes later the machine was beeping and Alfred had announced the results.

After that the two of them gently take off Timmy’s splint and ask him to do certain movements with his wrist. The toddler once again cooperates beautifully and does everything they ask him to and overall the only complaint Timmy had was that his wrist felt a bit stiff but Alfred easily explained to the child that the stiffness is just from the lack of movement the wrist has had over the last couple of weeks and how it should feel back to normal in a couple days times.

Once Alfred seemed pleased with it all he gives Timmy a cookie as a treat for his brilliant behaviour and allows them to leave the kitchen but only after he’s given Timmy strict instructions about how he should take it easy and to not put much strain on his wrist. Timmy nods accepting the words and thanks Alfred for the cookie before grabbing Conner’s hand and leading him out of the kitchen.

They return back to his room and the rest of the day from there was pretty chill and relaxing. They ate some snacks, watched a couple movies, talked and even played a few games right up until they were called for dinner in the evening.

As they walk down Timmy insists on Conner flying them to the kitchen, each time the toddler asks him to do so Kon shakes his head and laughs telling him that he’s not allowed to fly in the house, however in the end he ends up giving Timmy a piggy back. He makes exaggerated movements from side to side and does plane noises which makes Timmy giggle as they travel to the kitchen.

Getting there they find the rest of the Bats already sat down and beginning to eat their meals, they all look up at Conner as he walks into the room with Timmy on his back. The toddler was still giggling and Conner bends down to drop him onto the floor, as he does he apologises for being late.

Surprisingly Conner felt comfortable as he sat down, made sure Timmy was okay and started to eat his own meal. If it was this situation weeks ago he would have felt so awkward and incredibly embarrassed but it’s changed. His dynamics with the Bats has entirely changed since Tim became a toddler, he couldn’t exactly explain what it is but it’s certainly changed for the better, at least he can walk around the Manor without the feeling like he’s going to get stabbed by a piece of kryptonite if he makes a wrong move.

They all eat the meal with relative ease. There’s the occasional bickering from Jason and Damian, Steph keeps up a stream of babble which Timmy often joins in on and Cass, Bruce and Alfred simply observe everyone. The only one who seemed to be out of place was Dick, the older man was quietly making his way through his food, only every now and again adding to the conversation with his own input. Conner could guess what’s going on with the other man and how it’s affecting his mood, since no one else was really paying attention to it Conner leaves it alone for now, maybe after dinner he’ll go check on Tim’s older brother in private.

His attention is drawn away from Dick when Bruce clears his throat from the head of the table and successfully gains everyone’s attention. Well, all except Timmy who carried on happily eating his small pile of peas one at a time. The man places his knife and fork down and clasps his hands together in front of him, “Okay, I’ll tell you this since everyone is gathered here right now but I’ve had some news. Earlier today I had a call from the League with the news that our magicians have returned from their mission away. Zatanna will be coming to visit the Manor and to change Tim back to his normal self the day after tomorrow.”


End file.
